State Supreme Court limits union rights in Texas
Unionized government workers in Texas — including firefighters, police and teachers — don’t have the right to be accompanied by a union representative while being questioned during internal investigations, a divided Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Such representation is a basic right for unionized private sector and federal government employees.
But in a case begun by a Round Rock firefighter disciplined in 2008, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that state labor law doesn’t specifically confer a similar right to workers employed by state, county, city or local governments in Texas.
“On its face, (Texas law) confers only one explicit right: the right to organize into a trade union or other organization,” Justice Paul Green wrote for the majority. “It says nothing about any rights that may attach once such unions are formed.”
Writing in dissent, Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson argued that state law isn’t silent on the issue because it gives employees the right to unionize “to protect themselves … in their respective employment.”
“How can unions protect employees’ jobs if they cannot engage in conduct to protect employees’ jobs?” Jefferson wrote.
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http://m.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/state-supreme-court-limits-union-rights-in-texas/nXD2p/
