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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

IS FRIEDRICHS VS. CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION A DEATH KNELL FOR ALL UNIONS - Perdaily.com

IS FRIEDRICHS VS. CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION A DEATH KNELL FOR ALL UNIONS - Perdaily.com:

IS FRIEDRICHS VS. CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION A DEATH KNELL FOR ALL UNIONS

The ramifications of the Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association (CTA) that is now pending before the United States Supreme Court go far beyond the public sector unions and employees litigating this case with specious allegations of their 1st Amendment free speech rights being violated by what Justice Kennedy called "coerced speech."

In reality, it also has very little to do with the fair-share agency fees required of all public employees like teachers who are exclusively represented by a union like CTA, but choose not to be members of that union, because they do not share the political views and support given by that union to predominantly Democratic candidates and issues. Already public employee unions must segregate the funds collected to defray the costs of collective bargaining on behalf of all workers- who they have had the exclusive right to represent- and any supplemental political actions the union chooses to engage in and fund only from members dues.

In a country where only 6.6% of workers in the private sector and 35.7% of public sector workers remain unionized, the clear purpose of the Friedrichs case seems to be in dealing a final mortal blow to what remains of unions in this country. If Rebecca Friedrichs and her co-plaintiffs being represented by Michael Carvin and other elite conservative attorneys given carte blanche by the billionaire boys club are successful, not only will they not have to pay for union representation, but it is highly likely that a high percentage of the remaining 325,000 union membership in CTA will quit the union in much the same manner as we have already seen after Governor Scott Walker's siege against unions in Wisconsin.

Since Governor Walker's attack on unions, "American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has lost 18,000 of its previous 32,000 members and has seen its annual revenue fall from $10 million to $5.5 million." In addition, "The state's largest teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, has lost more than a third of its members." It seems highly unlikely that unions that have spent $1.7 billion in the 2012 elections will be able to do so in IS FRIEDRICHS VS. CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION A DEATH KNELL FOR ALL UNIONS - Perdaily.com: