Colleagues,
I have some good news to share which actually has come to me in the past two weeks, and regards federal court decisions on membership dues.
First, the Second Circuit Court ruled in favor of unions in not allowing former fee-payers to collect back fees/dues from before the Janus decision. Though the decision in Seidemann, et al. v. PSC, et al (this includes all public sector unions in NY, including UUP) will certainly be appealed, there are indications that it won’t fare well in SCOTUS.
That’s because of the second bit of news. Last week, SCOTUS refused to hear a number of anti-union cases which involved attempts to grant non-union members their back dues/fees. It was a surprise that the necessary 4 justices could not request the case. One caveat: Justice Amy Comey Barrett recused herself. Potentially, she could be the necessary fourth justice on a similar future case.
Nonetheless, we take the good news when we can these days. And this news is good.
On another matter, our great staff and I are finalizing our analysis of the very vague proposed Executive Budget. It’s being done while we’re preparing our testimony for Thursday’s hearing on Higher Education. The report will be out to you by the end of this week.
Stay safe and well…
In Solidarity,
Fred