Larry Sand on Janus
CEAFU Key Leader and President of the only nonunion professional educator group in California, California Teacher Empowerment Network (CTEN), Larry Sand speculates on the future of unions and the Janus case in the California Policy Center’s newsletter.
But now son of Friedrichs is upon us. On June 6th, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTW) asked SCOTUS to hear Janus v AFSCME. Mark Janus, a child support specialist who works for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, is compelled to send part of his paycheck to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees even though the union does not “represent his interests.” Right-to-work proponents are optimistic that the Court will take the case and that Neil Gorsuch, Scalia’s replacement, will come down as the fifth vote on the side of employee freedom.
Not surprisingly, the caterwauling from the union crowd has already begun. Over at Education Week, Mark Walsh referred to the litigants as “anti-union.”