On July 24, 2024, Judge Mark Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida dealt Florida teachers unions a critical blow in their attempt to overturn Senate Bill (SB) 256 regarding public-sector union...more
Public-sector employers in Florida will want to make certain they are in compliance with new restrictions on non-public safety unions (i.e., unions representing public-sector employees other than police officers,...more
On March 24, 2023, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law two significant pieces of legislation amending Michigan labor laws: Public Act (“PA”) 9 (2023), and its private sector equivalent, PA 8 (2023). Together, both...more
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 landmark ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, 138 S. Ct. 2448 (2018), which made it illegal for public sector labor unions to...more
On Tuesday, seven elected officials from various local government bodies challenged a recently enacted California state law that prohibits a public employer from “deter[ing] or discourag[ing] public employees from becoming or...more
Five In-Home Supportive Service (“IHSS”) providers filed a class-action lawsuit last month challenging their union’s practice of deducting union dues despite their quitting the union. The workers allege their First Amendment...more
On June 20, 2019, Oregon governor Kate Brown signed House Bill (HB) 2016 into law. The legislation brings sweeping changes for public sector employers and unions in an effort to increase unions’ direct access to represented...more
In its 1988 Beck decision, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that non-union members who were part of a collective bargaining unit could not be assessed dues for purposes other than collective bargaining or other matters...more
On February 22, 2018, in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus that fair share fees for public sector employees are unconstitutional, the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150, filed a lawsuit...more
On the final day of the Supreme Court’s just-completed term, it issued its long-awaited decision in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, changing the labor law landscape as we know it. The case involved the compulsory “fair share”...more
It did not take long; on June 13, 2018, a class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York challenging amendments to the New York Civil Service Law that were designed to...more
As of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, state laws requiring public sector collective bargaining agreements to contain agency shop...more
Recently the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a matter that could severely impact the status of unions. The dispute will determine whether nonunion employees working in the public sector should have to pay partial union...more
From Justice Kagan’s observation that a decision in favor of the plaintiff could affect millions of public sector workers to Justice Alito’s surprise at seeing a union brief include an argument that the Constitution...more
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear a case that has the potential to rock the world of unions that represent public sector employees in Rhode Island and throughout the country. The Court will decide whether state...more
In January of last year, we noted that the U.S. Supreme Court was poised to end compulsory union dues for California teachers and other public employees. Then in February of last year, Justice Antonin Scalia died. In March...more
Public sector union officials and their allies will breathe easier as a challenge to the collection of “agency fees” from non-members was rejected by a deadlocked United States Supreme Court earlier this week. In a per curiam...more
On March 29, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a per curiam opinion in a case on the validity of public-sector “agency shop” arrangements, which permit unions to charge a fee (in order to pay for select...more