Reflection on The SCOTUS Union Ruling

If I were a Justice I suppose I would have concurred in part and dissented in part. On the one hand I clearly understand and agree with the court's First Amendment finding. Because public sector unions are dealing with state employees and employers that have higher First Amendment bars than private organizations, compelled speech is a serious issue. Since it has already been determined that financial transactions are a form of speech, the court really didn't have any other choice, if it wanted to follow the law.

On the other hand unions, including public sector ones, provide a service. Employees who are beneficiaries of the services provided for by a Union should compensate those unions for their efforts. To do otherwise is theft of services, IMO. When a union negotiates a raise for employees at, say, a university, even those who oppose the union's political shenanigans benefit. They should contribute towards the union. Otherwise, it would be proper for those employees to NOT get the benefit of the pay raise. Same goes for other benefits. Thus, if I understand the ruling, employees who do not pay into the unions can still benefit from union activities that benefit them. I think many unions are going to be revisiting this state of affairs and stipulating that anything they negotiate on behalf of their members only apply to their members.

Then we have to deal with why this case came up in the first place: Union political activity. I've seen for myself that unions are essentially arms of the DNC. This last election showed that there is a disconnect between union leadership and the membership. Many union members were not happy with Clinton and voted for Trump while the union leadership spent union dues on political campaigning in favor of Clinton or other Democrats. I know that I personally received e-mails regularly speaking ill of Trump (some deserved and some not) from the union I belong to. I eventually asked to be taken off the mailing list. I'm disinclined to pay dues to an organization that not only fail represent my political positions but doesn't have the curtesy to recognize that it has dues paying members who do not agree with the politics of the leadership. To that end, my suggestion for unions going forward is that they stick very closely to issues that directly affect it's membership. That unions cease to align themselves with any political party but rather let their members organize among themselves for whatever causes they wish. That dues not be used for any political purposes. Instead members should be asked if they wish to further contribute (or whatever language is appropriate) to the political campaigning done by the union. This would resolve the conflict that created the case and return unions to their primary function.