Huckleberries Online

Ban On Union Pay Deductions Upheld

Posted by DFO

Feb. 25, 2009 8:17 a.m. • 3 comments

Item: Supreme Court upholds ban on union payroll deductions/AP

More Info: The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a state law banning local governments from letting workers use payroll deductions to fund their union’s political activities, a decision that could strike at organized labor’s ability to raise funds at local levels. Five labor unions and the Idaho state AFL-CIO successfully argued in lower federal courts that a 2003 Idaho law forcing cities, counties and school districts to eliminate a payroll deduction funding union political action committees violated the First Amendment. “Idaho’s law does not restrict political speech, but rather declines to promote that speech by allowing public employee checkoff for political activities,” Chief Justice John Roberts said as the court voted 6-3 to overturn those rulings.

Question: Unions in Idaho don’t seem to have much clout. Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing?

Three comments on this post so far. Add yours!

BethB on February 25 at 8:41 a.m.
Unions have played such a phenomenally significant role in the development of this country. Have you have ever read “The Jungle,” by Upton Sinclair (outlining turn-of-the-20th-century work conditions in Chicago)? Unions were created to buck that kind of abusive system, and to give people scattered about a way to gather together and have a voice.

When the disenfranchised become the establishment, however, there can be a new abuse of power because there is a new establishment. This is especially true of unions, which were established to fight against the abuse of power, since people running unions likely are in it because of a sensitivity to the power structure.

So - I am in favor of the concept of unions. I just think we need to ensure that they do not evolve into the power-abusers, and that they remember why they were created in the first place.
saraeanderson on February 25 at 3:26 p.m.
My husband recently witnessed the absolutely perfect middle-manager freakout at a local fast food place, where some kid called in sick and the manager was threatening to fire him and said “This is a right to work state; you have no rights!”

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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.