UNION DUES / GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES / TEACHERS (NEA)
Utah Court Deals Union Lawyers a Blow
The State of Utah's Third Dist. Court has rejected union lawyers' attempts
to dismiss a counter suit, brought by employees represented by Nat'l Right
to Work Legal Def. Fdn. attorneys, which, as a result, calls into question
the constitutionality of the fundamental union privilege known as monopoly
bargaining. In his ruling issued the week of April 29, Utah Judge
Stephen L. Henriod allowed the employees to defend the constitutionality
of Utah's Voluntary Contributions Act (VCA), a law intending to give union
members the right to withhold union dues spent for political activities.
If the court refuses to uphold the VCA as constitutional, the court will
consider the employees alternative argument that monopoly bargaining power--held
in many locales by union officials of the Utah Public Employees'
Ass'n (UPEA) and Utah Education Association (UEA)--is unconstitutional.
Even though Utah has a highly popular and effective Right to Work law that enables nonunion employees to pay no dues whatsoever to an unwanted union, the still-intact monopoly bargaining privilege forces employees to accept the rigid terms of one size fits all union-brokered contracts: ones tending to punish the best and most productive employees. Union monopoly bargaining bars all employees, even union objectors, from individually negotiating over the terms of their own employment. And using their monopoly bargaining privilege, union officials refuse to allow non-union members any input into workplace issues that directly affect them.
NRTWLDF attorneys filed to intervene in this case on behalf of union members who oppose their unions' politicking. NRTWLDF attorneys argue that, if union lawyers succeed in overturning the VCA as an unconstitutional interference into private union matters, then monopoly bargaining must also be declared unconstitutional for all Utah's government employees because of its inherent infringements on their rights to free speech and association. [NRTWLDF 5/3/02]
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