A state court dismissed a private sector union’s attempt to suppress information about dues payment. The Union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), was dealt a devastating defeat in court – in what is being hailed as a victory for free speech (a concept all unions despise). The union was automatically withdrawing massive “dues” from member’s disability and social security checks without their knowledge.
The Freedom Foundation, a Washington State based free market think tank, was sued by the greedy union (but aren’t they all!) for reaching out to home health aides to inform them that the terms of their union membership had been heavily modified – a detail that the Union attempted to suppress.
The union attempted to argue that letting union members know that the terms of their union membership had changed constituted, “tortuous interference.” This legal term refers to times when an opposing party seeks to cause economic harm to another, in a malicious and unwarranted way.
The foundation’s Attorney, James Abernathy had claimed this ruling on Friday a victory for the free speech rights all around the world. He said in a statement that “the First Amendment won and SEIU lost.” The SEIU’s contention is that the outreach would prevent it from collecting the expected revenue ‘was the heart of their case’, as per Abernathy; the judge’s dismissal could also undermine the rest of the Union’s claims allowing this organization to continue and extend its outreach programs.
The Foundation Chief Litigation Council David Dewhirst said, “The Freedom Foundation has prevailed on the merits every time a judge has considered them in this lawsuit. For the unions, this case isn’t about the merits. It’s about inflicting maximum damage against the Freedom Foundation through the discovery process. And it’s also about stalling for time because with every day that goes by, more dues money comes out of the paychecks of people who may not even know they’re in a union, let alone share its values.”
The Supreme Court ruled in Harris v. Quinn (2014) that the state governments could not withdraw the union dues from their disability checks sent to the home health aides, many of whom are caring for their own disabled relatives. The same 5-4 ruling applied solely to an agreement that was established in the state of Illinois under the imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Nevertheless, the ruling, for now would undo similar policies that were established in a dozen other states, including Washington.
Thankfully, SEIU Local 925 in Washington lost almost half of its dues paying members after the home daycare workers were freed from the shackles of fraudulent union membership.
Abernathy also said that the foundation intends to have the rest of the union’s challenge dismissed following the judge’s ruling.
The history of Unions in the United States is spotty, and filled with intentional misinformation and outright lies. Unions exist, and indeed have only existed, to steal the working classes’ money and funnel it into the pockets of Progressive elites, and their socialist pet projects – thus it is today, and thus it has always been, since before the 1930s.