49 Comments - thunderspirit - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:20 am: Public sector unions down. Private sector unions next on the target list. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:21 am: ===Private sector unions next on the target list.=== Yep. The trades should be nervous. - Honeybear - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:22 am: Exactly Rich There is the perfidy But it will turn out to be a boon for Dems This will stimulate the sleeping Frontline of labor To fight for their lives Today begins the second coming of labor - Sue - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:23 am: Janus has absolutely no implication for private sector unions. - Ole General - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:24 am: Is McConell the most influential senate majority leader in our lifetimes. Appears so. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:25 am: However fair share fees can be gifted to political groups. You can review AFCMEs LM-2 for details. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:25 am: Kinda shaky on “due process” as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30E5P12DVEk - Ducky LaMoore - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:26 am: ===Today begins the second coming of labor=== You may be right, Honeybear. This could be the spark that starts the fire. But I fear things are going to get worse before they get better. - Sue - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:27 am: Wishful thinking on honeybear’s part WS employees when given the chance dropped their membership by half - wordslinger - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:29 am: –WS employees– Who? - Mike Cirrincione - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:31 am: You mean Donald Trump, like Mark Janus and Bruce Rauner, has been oppressed by “the man” too? - Sue - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:31 am: Oswego- the decision has no implication at all for private sector unions. The only reason the case is a case is that the public sector triggers the first amendment issue - OneMan - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:33 am: Word, I think they meant Wisconsin http://www.maciverinstitute.com/2017/10/wisconsin-union-membership-plummets-in-wake-of-worker-freedom-laws/ Don’t know too much about the politics of the group providing the numbers, but they had a graph. Here it is in news form. https://projects.jsonline.com/news/2016/11/27/for-unions-in-wisconsin-fast-and-hard-fall-since-act-10.html - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:33 am: ===…the decision has no implication at all for private sector unions. The only reason the case is a case is that the public sector triggers the first amendment issue.=== You think the attacks on organized labor stops now? You go with that as Rauner has the want/desire/hope for Right to Work in Illinois. Yeah. This ends all attacks on labor… - The Bashful Raconteur - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:34 am: So if union membership is valued by members, why would they not pay? Because its not valued. Like any product or service, people buy it cause they value it for some reason. Unions will have to make a value proposition just as other organizations do to build membership that is not compulsory. - Streator Curmudgeon - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:36 am: Back in the 50s and 60s, the Democrats were loyal supporters of labor unions. Since the 1980s, when U.S. corporations began shipping jobs overseas, not so much. Not coincidentally, about the late 70s or 80s, corporations began donating heavily to Democrats to hedge their bets. It worked. Unions can’t look to the Democrats in Washington for much help any more. - Chris Widger - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:37 am: ==You think the attacks on organized labor stops now?== It’s pretty disingenuous to read Sue’s statement that the opinion has no direct bearing or changes the law for private-sector unions as a statement that attacks on organized labor are suddenly going to stop. The attacks would have been just as vociferous whether Janus won or not. - BlueDogDem - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:37 am: Revision to November’s governor race. Pritzker 53% Rauner 41% McCann/others 6%. - AC - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:40 am: As OW has often said “elections have consequences”. Union households who broke with their leadership nationally are facing the same consequences of voting against their own self interests the same way that union households did in the last Illinois Governor race. Time will tell if union members are capable of learning important political lessons and if union leadership can do a more effective job of educating their members in the future. I am reasonably certain that a revitalized labor movement will ultimately result, what I don’t know is if things have gotten bad enough for union members for that to happen yet. - Nick Name - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:42 am: The dark days when non-union workers were unable to support the candidate of their choice are finally at an end. Thanks, Orange Cheeto, for your sage words of wisdom. - 47th Ward - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:43 am: ===Kinda shaky on “due process” as well.=== Lol. Kinda shaky on “equal treatment under the law” also. - hisgirlfriday - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:47 am: To “some” this ruling was about handing a big loss to the Dems? Come on, Rich. We are sophisticated political observers here. To most, and likely all Janus-favoring observers, this ruling was about handing a loss to Dems. Intellectually honest conservative legal scholars like Eugene Volokh saw no reason for SCOTUS to come down in favor of Janus and even filed an amicus brief against him. This was pure power politics from our 3rd political branch of government. Plain and simple. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:52 am: Sue WS membership dropped because ACT 10 was passed by a republican governor with the majority republicans Act 10 took bargaining rights for pay. Pensions and healthcare away from the unions. Then right to work was passed. Unions members dropped because the union could no longer bargain for the important issues. So why continue to pay. Not the same situation in Illinois - Chris Widger - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:54 am: ==Intellectually honest conservative legal scholars like Eugene Volokh saw no reason for SCOTUS to come down in favor of Janus== Well, yes, if you assume that intellectually honest people support Abood and intellectually dishonest people do not, then the logic is simple. I’d encourage you instead to read Abood and read Janus and come up with the legal arguments you think are disingenuous, as a better way to prod dialogue. - Real - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 12:00 pm: Come on, Rich. We are sophisticated political observers here. To most, and likely all Janus-favoring observers, this ruling was about handing a loss to Dems. -False.. As some of the rich special interest have supported dem candidates. This was all about weaking public sector Unions and destroying the middle-class. It had little to do with a war on Unions funding dems. - Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 12:08 pm: “WS employees when given the chance dropped their membership by half” If I remember correctly, this is an utter false equivalence, if it’s Wisconsin. Wisconsin workers are forced to accept horrible contracts as a matter of state law (not being able to bargain over anything but wages up to the CPI). You think that’s going to fly here in Illinois, with the GA’s political makeup? You think Democrats are going to strip out collective bargaining? Alito said exclusive bargaining representation remains and is a benefit. State workers already voted to not accept the effluent Rauner is trying to force them to consume. - Bill - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 12:15 pm: It’s the old saying, pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered. The Unions became hogs. Not budging on issues in the face of dire financial troubles. Now their membership will be slashed 20-30 percent. - Memo From Turner - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 12:33 pm: ==Janus has absolutely no implication for private sector unions.== If you believe that, I have some swamp land to sell you. The real test now for private unions will be prevailing rate jobs. What is going to prevent states and municipalities from hiring trade members as employees without having to fund the Union? Local 150 had to take on the bull with Rauner, with this decision today, they are about to get the horns without a “right-to-work” state. - TrumpsSmallHands - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 12:39 pm: Sue - Did you read the opinion and the dissent? This ruling has implications across a wide range of topics because the majority (Gorsuch, Alito, Thomas, Roberts, Kennedy) has considerably lowered the bar on overturning stare decisis. The majority’s “special justification” for overturning Abood relies on bootstrapping the court did in Knox and Harris not an honest deficiency in the law or its application. This approach lays the groundwork for the Originalist wing of court to simply throw uncited criticism into opinions and then rely on those criticism in future cases to establish special justification for overturning well settled law. I don’t see how anyone can read the courts opinion and Kagan’s dissent and come away with a good feeling about the direction this court is going in regards to unions, both public and private. This is why Originalists don’t belong on the Supreme Court. Origionalism is a fundamentally activist approach, as it doesn’t respect normal jurisprudence / stare decisis. - Three Dimensional Checkers - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 12:45 pm: Yeah, now public workers will all vote Democratic after every Republican crows about state workers making less money. There used to be some Republican state workers, but you got to figure those will be gone after today. - Sue - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 1:12 pm: Adding to today’s splendid news. Justice Kennedy just announced his retirement. We now have a 5 /4 court for the next 25 years even if Thomas is replaced by a Dem - Illinifan - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 1:14 pm: Data speaks a lot about unions (source BLS). The salaries says a lot that non-union workers in general earn 80% less than union. Unions in the private sector have been dead for a while at only 6.5% of the population. Public sector was attacked heavily as this group represented 34% of the population. This is why it was attacked so heavily. –The union membership rate of public-sector workers (34.4 percent) continued to be more than five times higher than that of private- sector workers (6.5 percent). (See table 3.) –Workers in protective service occupations and in education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionization rates (34.7 percent and 33.5 percent, respectively). (See table 3.) –Men continued to have a higher union membership rate (11.4 percent) than women (10.0 percent). (See table 1.) –Black workers remained more likely to be union members than White, Asian, or Hispanic workers. (See table 1.) –Nonunion workers had median weekly earnings that were 80 percent of earnings for workers who were union members ($829 versus $1,041). (The comparisons of earnings in this release are on a broad level and do not control for many factors that can be important in explaining earnings differences.) (See table 2.) –Among states, New York continued to have the highest union membership rate (23.8 percent), while South Carolina continued to have the lowest (2.6 percent). (See table 5.): Highlights from the 2017 data: –The union membership rate of public-sector workers (34.4 percent) continued to be more than five times higher than that of private- sector workers (6.5 percent). (See table 3.) –Workers in protective service occupations and in education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionization rates (34.7 percent and 33.5 percent, respectively). (See table 3.) –Men continued to have a higher union membership rate (11.4 percent) than women (10.0 percent). (See table 1.) –Black workers remained more likely to be union members than White, Asian, or Hispanic workers. (See table 1.) –Nonunion workers had median weekly earnings that were 80 percent of earnings for workers who were union members ($829 versus $1,041). (The comparisons of earnings in this release are on a broad level and do not control for many factors that can be important in explaining earnings differences.) (See table 2.) –Among states, New York continued to have the highest union membership rate (23.8 percent), while South Carolina continued to have the lowest (2.6 percent). (See table 5.) - Deadbeat Conservative (Blocked Yet?) - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 1:24 pm: @Sue =Adding to today’s splendid news. Justice Kennedy just announced his retirement. We now have a 5 /4 court for the next 25 years even if Thomas is replaced by a Dem= As if you didn’t have enough concentration of wealth and power against 99% of us. You’re definitely winning: a plastic bag was found deep in the ocean; many species and habititas are being destroyed; and rent is nearly unaffordable on a worker’s wage; lead is in the crumbling drinking water infrastructure; prosperity gospel schemes are raking it in tax-free, and we run big deficits to fund wars for profit…. Not sure how much more of your “splendidness” we can take. - A guy - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 1:29 pm: == Time will tell if union members are capable of learning important political lessons== And you really wonder why *some* of those people aren’t voting your way? Keep talking to them this way and you’ll lose the rest. - Honeybadger - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 1:50 pm: Elections have consequences both in Illinois and nationally. All those union members (AFSCME-especially) who disliked Quinn and wanted to send a message-thanks a lot. All those union members who voted for Trump because he was/is such a staunch 2nd Amendment supporter and you disliked HRC so much-thanks a lot. I hope you are all very happy, especially when your wages and benefits are slashed. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 1:55 pm: “Adding to today’s splendid news. Justice Kennedy just announced his retirement. We now have a 5 /4 court for the next 25 years even if Thomas is replaced by a Dem” 6 out of the last 7 presidential elections had the popular vote go for Democrats yet we are stuck with a high court majority comprised of activist Republican judges for the next generation. Some country. - A guy - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 2:14 pm: == I hope you are all very happy, especially when your wages and benefits are slashed.== Doubt those are the magic words to get them back. - Ducky LaMoore - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 2:33 pm: ===We now have a 5 /4 court for the next 25 years even if Thomas is replaced by a Dem=== Unless the democrats roar back into power and try an FDR-style court packing. If Rs can hold out and not allow a SC nominee a hearing, who knows what dems will try to do if they get unified power in Senate and Presidency (and remember the Rs have already gone nuclear on court appointees). You could be looking at an 8/5 supreme court split in that case. The entire last two years has been a dangerous slippery slope for our country. - Sue - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 3:40 pm: Honeybear- you can raise your wages tomorrow if you want. How much are your dues? - lost in the weeds - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 3:41 pm: In my view the root cause of these trends and changes in policy and politics and the divisiveness in the country are race relations. MLK was in Memphis with AFSCME for the sanitation workers strike when he was assassinated (Large majority of the workers were African American). As union memberhip continues to include more minorities, unions have reduced in membership in the US. The union’s power has been reduced for a myriad of reasons. Race has been the foundation of changes in education, industrial, trade, social program, immigration, criminal justice and labor policies. If you look at the divide in race makeup of the Democratic and Republican parties you cannot only attribute it to economics, wealth or ideology. https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/4/16/17242748/identity-politics-racial-justice-democratic-party-lilla-traub-trump - Nick Name - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 3:49 pm: ===Adding to today’s splendid news. Justice Kennedy just announced his retirement. We now have a 5 /4 court for the next 25 years even if Thomas is replaced by a Dem=== Because why have rule of law when you can have rule of ideology? - Sue - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 3:53 pm: Lost- I recognize it’s difficult to appreciate since this is a BLUE state- but the reality is that the country as a majority away from the coasts and Illinois is mostly more conservative. The Dems are really lurching to the left and you are right with respect to minority composition within the Party. As long as the Dems are being controlled by progressive voices you won’t win national elections controlled by the electoral college or the senate. Truth be told as much as I can’t stand Trump at least he is giving Republicans the Courts and depriving the Dems of turning the Country into the socialist paradise Bernie and that primary victor last night in NY pine for. If public sector unions were not totally married to the Dems for their preservation you would be better served as an employed person wanting to see the country retain its capitalist bent - Sue - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 4:07 pm: Anon- that’s because CA and NY are not representative of the country as a whole. The total vote count in a presidential election is meaningless unless you get to 270 votes in the electoral college. Keep moving to the left and Trump will win again - Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 4:11 pm: Trump, in his arrogance and lack of filters, admits union-busting is about starving out political opponents of money. It’s not about employee free speech. - Sue - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 4:14 pm: Grandson- you are totally wrong. It is about free speech. The freedom of union members not being forced to support candidates they don’t like with their money. In 2016 92 percent of public union money went to Dems. Do you really think that reflects the membership? - Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 4:29 pm: “It is about free speech.” Not to the multimillionaire and billionaire proponents and funders of cases like Janus and other political efforts to cripple or kill unions. The bosses like Rauner are not employees and are in no way harmed over their 1A rights. The SPN and IPI want to deal a “mortal blow” to political opponents through starving them of money. Employees are just a pretext for this. The president just admitted it. - CapnCrunch - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 8:53 pm: “Private sector unions next on the target list.” Why would these unions be a target? This ruling doesn’t apply to them. And at just 6.5% of the labor force they are a spent force. Globalization, technology, and demographics are responsible for their decline. Ironically, Trump’s protectionist trade policies may lead to an increase in private sector union membership by returning manufacturing jobs to the US. Ask USW Local 1899 in Granite City, Illinois. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 9:02 pm: ===“Private sector unions next on the target list.” Why would these unions be a target?=== Prevailing wage and collective bargaining is next, as states continue to move towards Right to Work, which is what Rauner would like too. You either don’t realize this, or you realize it and don’t want to acknowledge it, or… you are purposely saying what you know is false. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Jun 27, 18 @ 11:54 pm: == I hope you are all very happy, especially when your wages and benefits are slashed.== Doubt those are the magic words to get them back.– That’s a confusing statement, but since you believe in “magic words,” what do you have, Snape? I remember your years of defending Rauner misanthropy until HB40. Now, you’re all lovey-dovey again. Wha’ happen? Did he put a spell on you, with the magic? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.