Re: Janus vs AFSCME: There is no sugar coating it. The Supreme Court's June 27, 2018 decision in Janus vs AFSCME is a bad loss (with one surprising twist, noted below). The Court overruled the long-standing and well-established public sector rule permitting the assessment of agency or "fair share" fees to address the free rider problem and to promote stable labor relations. We believe the Court's stated reasons for reversing this carefully balanced treatment of the rights of objecting employees and the rights of the majority of employees to be intellectually bankrupt. It is also a political rather than judicial product. Every Republican-appointed Justice voted against the union position; every Democratic-appointed Justice voted for the union position. But that conversation is for another day. The current task is to provide guidance on some questions our public sector affiliates may have in the wake of the decision. Because of the great interest, we address this letter to all affiliates - those representing only private sector workers as well as those in the public sector. However, to be clear, the Janus decision is addressed only to the public sector.
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