McKenna on KIRO: Gov. employees can’t be forced to pay unions

KIRO 97.3 host Dave Ross asked Rob about this week’s landmark Supreme Court ruling in the Janus case. The court ruled 5-4 that government employees cannot be forced to join a union or pay representation fees to one as a condition of employment.

Dave Ross: “So was this decision based on a free speech issue, or something else?”

Rob McKenna: “That’s exactly what it was based on. The Supreme Court has found it to be a violation of the First Amendment to force someone to pay fees to a union whose positions the employee disagrees with.

“Now, under the law for a long time – in a case called Abood, which the Supreme Court has now overruled – you could be required to pay agency fees even if you don’t belong to the union, so long as none of that money was being spent on the political activities, political speech of the union.

“But the court here has extended that idea to the possibility that you would just disagree with the union generally, regardless of what they’re doing politically.”

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