A statement from AGMA President James Odom on the Supreme Court Ruling:
The recent decision from the Supreme Court in Janus v. AFSCME delivers a crippling blow to members of public-sector unions. It allows workers to enjoy the benefits of collective bargaining, contract enforcement, and union representation without taking responsibility for the funding of those activities.
The flawed reasoning of forced participation in political activities, with which individual workers might disagree, is not compelling when the CWA v. Beck decision clearly exempts workers from paying any portion of dues levied by the union that are not directly related to core representational activities, such as contract negotiation and enforcement.
Without these “agency fees,” unions will find it far more difficult to effectively represent workers as they are required to continue representing those who do not pay their fair share.
While the decision will not directly affect AGMA at this time, we feel certain that there will be attempts to expand this decision to include private sector unions in the near future.
We should stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the public-sector unions even as we look to working with our brothers and sisters in the private sector unions as we anticipate the attempt to further reduce the ability of unions to protect working Americans.