Labor leaders are enjoying a round of self-congratulatory press, claiming to have survived a Supreme Court ruling that these very leaders, just months earlier, were predicting could spell the end of the labor movement. Their celebrations ignore the country’s trend toward worker freedom.
One year ago, on Feb. 26, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Janus v. AFSCME. The court issued its landmark ruling in June, deciding that public employees cannot be forced to pay a union as a condition of employment.
Union officials expressed outrage. Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association (NEA), called it a “radical” ruling. Lee Saunders, president of American Federation of State, County Municipal Employees (AFSCME), called it an “unprecedented and nefarious political attack” on the labor movement.