Labor Journos React to Supreme Court's Big Labor Ruling, Harris v. Quinn | Hillman Foundation

Clear It With Sidney

The best of the week’s news by Lindsay Beyerstein

Labor Journos React to Supreme Court's Big Labor Ruling, Harris v. Quinn

Yesterday, Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to exempt public sector workers in union shops from paying union dues to cover the costs of collective bargaining. Until now, these workers were exempt from paying dues to cover the union’s political activities, but they still had to pay their fair share of the cost of bargaining on their behalf. 

  • Hillman judge Harold Meyerson explains how the ruling will weaken public sector unions by giving workers the option to reap the benefits of union bargaining without paying dues. 
  • Michelle Chen notes that the ruling “pushe[s] public sector unions a step closer toward death by attrition, by eroding their ability to finance themselves.”
  • Sarah Jaffe argues that the Harris and Hobby Lobby rulings will be a double whammy for working women. 
  • Carla Murphy observes that, by weakening public sector unions, this ruling imperils a critical path for upward mobility for women and people of color. 
  • The rulings in Harris and Hobby Lobby have been hailed as narrow, but legal analyst Jeffery Toobin explains how these apparently narrowly-tailored rulings fit with the Roberts Court’s long-established tendency to issue “narrow” rulings that pave the way for more sweeping rulings in the future. 

 

[Photo credit: Harris v. Quinn Press Conference, SEIU, Creative Commons.]