Originally published at The Federalist
A Pennsylvania public school teacher who sued a teachers union for attempting to charge him dues despite no longer being a member entered into a settlement this fall that reaffirms the constitutional rights of government workers who do not want to subsidize political activism they do not support.
Until recently, those rights had been subjugated to the commonwealth’s labor laws, which allow unions to charge nonmembers “fair share fees” as a condition of their employment. The Pennsylvania statute also allows government unions to establish “maintenance of membership” provisos that prevent public employees from resigning from their union anytime outside of an approximately two-week window at the end of a collective bargaining agreement. What this meant in practice was that unions could compel workers to maintain their membership and continue to pay dues against their will, in some cases for years on end.
Read more at The Federalist
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