After Janus: Vindication and Hope

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | July 25, 2018 | Charles Baird

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Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court took a significant step toward restoring individual liberty for all government employees, including faculty in public universities and colleges, with its decision in Janus v. AFSCME. Faculty members will no longer be forced to pay any labor union any fee for any purpose as a condition of continued government employment.

Janus overturned the Court’s 1977 decision in Abood v. Board of Education against which I and thousands of fellow liberty-loving public higher education faculty have long struggled. Abood prohibited unions from charging faculty for their explicit political advocacy but permitted them to charge faculty for their activities as exclusive bargaining agents, even if the individual wanted no such representation. The Janus Court ruled that all such activities are inherently political so mandatory charges to pay for them violate the First Amendment.

I feel vindicated by Janus; and, to the extent that the decision weakens the influence of faculty unions, it gives me hope that higher education may gradually turn back to academic inquiry and away from the herd pursuit of political correctness. Aristotle said, “Hope is a waking dream.” I have such a dream.

Vindication

The California Faculty Association (CFA) acquired monopoly bargaining privileges over all faculty in the California State University system in 1982. It did not achieve the government-granted power to force all faculty members to pay for its alleged services until late in 1999. The statute that created that power included a religious exemption for faculty with “sincerely held religious beliefs” who subscribed to specific religions with a history of opposing unions, such as the Seventh Day Adventists.

On the grounds of our own sincerely held religious beliefs, several of my colleagues and I petitioned the CFA for such an exemption. The CFA superciliously asserted that our beliefs were not sincere.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Reverse the JFK Executive Order which allowed government unionization!

SEIU is un-necessary with all of the Civil Service protections written into law. It creates “double jeopardy” for taxpayers.

At least, giving employees the option not to join and pay is a start.

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Public Sector Unions establishes a corrupt arrangement that allows and encourages conspiracies among the unions and elected officials. The voter, who has to pay for these corrupt agreements, is excluded from the bargaining.

At all levels of government from local to federal we have seen public employees turned into political partisan actors, including Fire and Police employees. The exception to this trend has been the military where unions are prohibited. Public sector unions should be outlawed.