US Supreme Court rejects Alaska's bid to let state workers avoid union dues [View all]
Source: Reuters
January 16, 2024 10:39 AM EST
Jan 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away Alaska's bid to revive a Republican-backed policy to make it easier for state workers to opt out of paying union dues in the latest case aimed at limiting the influence of unions representing public-sector employees.
The justices declined to hear the state's appeal of a lower court's ruling that found that a union's collecting of dues from public employees who it represents without receiving their explicit written consent did not violate their free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
Republican Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy in 2019 issued an administrative order barring unions representing government employees from collecting dues from workers unless they filled out forms explicitly authorizing them. But lower courts later invalidated that policy in a lawsuit brought by Alaska against the state's largest public-sector union.
The Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, has leaned toward curbing the power of labor unions in rulings in recent years. The Alaska case marked the latest attempt by Republicans and conservative groups to extend the Supreme Court's 2018 ruling in a case called Janus v. AFSCME. In that ruling, the justices decided that government workers who do not join the unions that represent them in contract negotiations cannot be required to pay fees to cover the cost of collective bargaining.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-rejects-alaskas-bid-let-state-workers-avoid-union-dues-2024-01-16/
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