SCOTUS Strikes Down Forced Union Payments

In a 5-4 split,  the US Supreme Court reversed a decades old decision that allowed public sector unions to force employees to contribute union dues.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that government workers can’t be forced to contribute to labor unions that represent them in collective bargaining, dealing a serious financial blow to organized labor. 

The court’s conservative majority scrapped a 41-year-old decision that had allowed states to require that public employees pay some fees to unions that represent them, even if the workers choose not to join. 

The 5-4 decision fulfills a longtime wish of conservatives to get rid of the so-called fair share fees that non-members pay to unions in roughly two dozen states. Organized labor is a key Democratic constituency.

The potential ramifications for this decision are tremendous. Union dues are a stable, reliable source of income for many liberal institutions. Filling this gap will take a concerted, coordinated effort to find ways to rip $$$ from the paychecks of millions of Americans.

•  The DNC will be forced to seek other ways by which they can force unwilling victims to contribute to their political coffers. A possible strategy includes the unionization of the dead. This is consistent with other DNC efforts as the dead are most likely to vote Democratic.

• The Teachers Unions may have to actually start considering ways to educate their students rather than fighting merit pay initiatives and attempts to limit tenure for incompetent educators. 

• Service Employees International Union (SEIU) thugs will be forced to curb beatings as a way of controlling union voting and other forms of union discourse. Lawyers' fees may be limited to only employee rape, embezzlement, theft and fraud arrests. Legal representation for simple and aggravated assault charges may be financially out of bounds for the foreseeable future.

More here.

Department Of Ill-Advised Photo Opportunities

The Associated Press noted in its coverage of The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer’s visit to a Mountain View, CA Walmart, that he triggered a backlash from labor unions and pay equity advocates who say low wages paid by Walmart “fly in the face of Obama’s vaunted push to pay equity.”

TWMDCO enraged labor unions by congratulating their arch-enemy Wal-Mart for making a big commitment to solar panels.

John Hayward, opining at Human Events notes, “Wally World holds the same talismanic significance for unions that the Keystone XL pipeline holds for radical environmentalists.”

"The president's visit sends a terrible message to workers across America," Joe Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has battled Walmart for years, said in a statement. "He is lending credibility to a bad actor when he should be joining the calls for Walmart to change."

The progressive online advocacy group CREDO declared the visit "outrageous" and called on the White House to scrap it. Pam Ramos, a Walmart worker employed at the very store Obama is visiting, wrote an op-ed in Salon asking the president to "tell Walmart to pay us enough to cover the bills."

In a Facebook post, Robert Reich, the former labor secretary under Bill Clinton, wondered, "What numbskull in the White House arranged this?"  

Anyone else find it ironic Obama is appearing at Walmart when Solyndra is right across the Bay AND how the left hates Walmart? @seanhannity
— Big Bertha (@MistralWinds) May 9, 2014

UPDATE:  Thank you, Cardigan of iOwnTheWorld, for linking to this post.

UPDATE II:  Thanks to Admiral Teach at The Pirate’s Cove for linking to this post.