Court Upholds Freedom of Speech

Last week the Supreme Court ruled that unions cannot use a member’s mandatory dues for political activity without their explicit consent. Essentially, they cannot force you to support a political candidate against your will. This is an expansion on the 1988 case, Communication Workers vs. Beck, where the court said that unions could not use dues for politics if a member objected. Now the union needs explicit consent to use the dues, the burden is no longer on the worker to complain.

This is great ruling for freedom of speech and worker’s rights. However, in 28 states public unions still can collect dues from all employees. Workers should have the right to keep their hard earned money if they do not want to be part of a union. That is their right and hopefully more state laws will start to reflect that.