Label
Council President Steel
Title
Supporting the right of public employees to bargain collectively, and for their collective bargaining representatives to collect fair share fees and directing the Director of Law to file an amicus brief in support of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in the United States Supreme Court; and declaring an emergency.
Summary
WHEREAS, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has agreed to hear the case of Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in its 2017 term; and
WHEREAS, the plaintiffs in the case charge that the fair-share fees collected by public- sector unions collect from workers who don't become members are a violation of the dissenting workers' First Amendment rights; and
WHEREAS, this challenges federal case law set nearly 40 years ago when in 1977 SCOTUS unanimously ruled in Abood v. the Detroit Board of Education that although public school teachers cannot be required to join a union or to contribute to the union's political expenditures, they can be required to pay their fair share of the costs that the union incurs in negotiating and administering an agreement on behalf of all teachers; and
WHEREAS, this case and its dangers are substantively similar to the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, for which a lower court ruling in favor of the defendants only prevailed due to a vacancy on SCOTUS; and
WHEREAS, the Janus plaintiffs have followed the same legal strategy as the Friedrichs plaintiffs; and
WHEREAS, a SCOTUS decision in favor of the plaintiffs in Janus could effectively prevent school districts from collecting so-called "agency fees" from nonunion members represented by teachers unions and would likely extend to all other public-sector unions as well; and
WHEREAS, this means that although public-sector unions would still be obligated to represent all members of their bargaining u...
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