Page 10 - The Digital Carpenter, Vol. 1 Issue 2

FEATURED STORY
UNIONS UNDER ATTACK
Make no mistake about it Brothers and Sisters, all Unions – from carpenters to electricians to teachers – are today under attack in the United
States of America. Whether you’re a Union worker or not, you should be concerned about the threat to your rights from: President Donald J. Trump; the U.S. Supreme Court; multi-national global corporations; the billionaire Koch Brothers; and well-funded conservative think tanks (National Right to Work Foundation or the Caesar Rodney Institute or Americans for Prosperity).
While President Trump’s latest Tweet usually leads the daily news, it’s the assault on the common man’s working rights – not to mention our environmental, safety protections and civil liberties – that is largely going unnoticed.
In The Digital Carpenter’s cover story, we highlight court cases, government legislation and attempts by both white and blue collar workers to unionize over the course of the last year.
JANUS V. AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE,
COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES
This Spring, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear the Janus V. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). In the case, Mark Janus, an Illinois State employee, is questioning the constitutionality of paying “fair-share fees” and says that it violates his rst amendment rights of free speech to use union dues to support political candidates that he doesn’t support.
In a brief submitted in Janus v. AFSCME, the Plainti Mark Janus, a child-support specialist for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services is challenging the constitutionality of “fair-share fees” from non-union members.
The Court previously ruled on “fair share fees” in Abood vs. Detroit (431 U.S. 209) in 1977 and said that it was reasonable to require all employees – not just Union members – to support the cost of collective bargaining because all workers bene tted from it. In the case, public school teachers in Detroit were opposed to paying union dues on the grounds that they objected to the political
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