Five years ago today, the United States Supreme Court delivered a groundbreaking ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, declaring it unconstitutional for public sector labor unions to compel non-members to pay dues or fees as a condition of employment.
The case, brought by plaintiff Mark Janus, granted public employees the freedom to opt out of union representation and support only the speech they align with. Janus said the unions were supporting candidates and policies he disagreed with.
In 2023, the Janus v. AFSCME decision serves as a powerful testament to empowering workers to exercise autonomy over their hard-earned money, writes Sarah Montalbano, at Alaska Policy Forum, Alaska’s conservative policy think tank.
The origins of the case trace back to 2015 when Mark Janus, a child support specialist employed by the state of Illinois, challenged the mandatory fees imposed by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
Before the Janus decision in 2018, public employees in states without right-to-work laws faced limited options: Either become full union members and pay full dues or decline membership and pay mandatory “agency fees,” which were often almost as much as full membership dues, discouraging employees from opting out. Despite not being a union member, Mark Janus was obligated to pay agency fees as a condition of his employment.
With the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Janus, government workers now have a choice.
As a result, Alaska has witnessed a significant decline in union membership — over 35% in the government workforce, Montalbano writes at this Alaska Policy Forum link.
In Illinois, where the case was centered, the Illinois Federation of Teachers has over 16,000 fewer members and fee payers than it did in 2017, yet the union took in over $600,000 more in dues and fees in 2022 than it did in 2017, according to reports it filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, writes Illinois Policy. Unions have partially offset losses by increasing dues on their remaining members, the group noted. And they are becoming more militant, the organization said.
Janus was represented by the Illinois Policy Institute’s litigation partner, the Liberty Justice Center, and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Their work ended over 40 years of forced government union payments. Read their five-year report on the impact of the Janus decision at this Illinois Policy link.
