US Supreme Court rules against unions, sides with billionaires

The Supreme Court has sided with billionaires by ruling against public sector unions, prohibiting them from charging “agency fees” to the public employees for whom they negotiate pay increases and other benefits if those employees decline to join the union as full members.

Justice Samuel Alito’s 5-4 majority opinion on Wednesday’s 5-4 ruling but that dealt a blow to worker rights. The so-called "fair share" fees used to help unions represent all workers, including non-unionized ones.

The decision "marks a victory in the decades long Republican campaign to undermine the labor movement," said Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires organization, which says its mission is to build a more stable, prosperous, and inclusive nation by promoting public policies based on the “first principles” of equal political representation, a guaranteed living wage for all working citizens, and a fair tax system.

"Unfortunately though, it is a victory for everyone except the American worker. This is an assault on the labor movement, full stop, and should not be commemorated as anything less,” it added.

Celine McNicholas, director of labor law and policy at the Economic Policy Institute, said "the Court elevated the objections of a minority over the democratically determined choices of the majority of workers and prohibited state and local government workers from negotiating collective bargaining agreements with fair share fee arrangements."

She added that the ruling "will have profound implications for not just the 6.8 million state and local government workers covered by a union contract, but all 17.3 million state and local government workers and indeed for every working person throughout the country."