In a major victory for public sector unions, a divided Supreme Court has
let a lower court ruling stand in
Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association:
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday split 4-4 on a conservative legal challenge to a vital source of funds for organized labor, affirming a lower-court ruling that allowed California to force non-union workers to pay fees to public-employee unions. [snip]
A ruling allowing non-union workers to stop paying so-called "agency fees" equivalent to union dues, currently mandatory under laws in about half the 50 states including California, would have deprived public sector unions of millions of dollars a year, reducing their income and political power.
The decision means the status quo remains, with the unions able to collect fees from non-union workers.
Once again, the death of "Justice" Scalia deprived the right- wing of a majority, frustrating decades- long Republican efforts to undercut public sector unions and their collective bargaining and political power, at least for now.
