Two Minnesotans will receive union dues filched without their consent thanks to a Supreme Court decision this year that said no American in government employ may be forced to fund unions.
Carrie Keller and Elizabeth Zeien work for Minnesota’s state courts. When they started working for the state, they were not part of a union, but last year under union pressure the state agreed to forcibly unionize their workplace. Keller and Zeien were never given a vote or any other way of consenting to their union enrollment.
Before this forcible unionization, the two ladies earned the same or more than they would under the new union pay scale, atop which they’d now have to pay mandatory union membership fees. So they sought help from the National Right to Work Foundation, a nonprofit organization that litigated the successful Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision.
Following the Janus decision in June, the Teamsters union settled with the Minnesota pair, agreeing to refund their dues and collect no further paycheck carveouts without the ladies’ consent. Janus held that forcing people to pay to fund political organizations without their explicit consent is a violation of their First Amendment right to free speech.
Government employee unions comprise the vast majority of unionized employees in the United States, and typically use their forced worker payments to agitate for bigger, less accountable government. Unions are one of the largest funders of the Democratic Party and hard-leftist causes. Other government employees can seek their constitutionally guaranteed freedom from union dues and membership from National Right to Work’s website, MyJanusRights.org.
