As Friedrichs v. the CTA nears its hearing date before the Supreme Court, union leadership is spreading their propaganda thicker by the minute. The AFL-CIO, AFSCME, SEIU, the NEA and the AFT are exhorting their members to visit a union-created website Americaworkstogether.us to find out how members of those unions can help fight the Koch Brothers and evil corporations. Honestly, at this stage, there isn’t much they can do. The Supreme Court will hear the case, then issue its ruling in 2016.
In a taped message to the unions, AFL-CIO President Trumka said that “the Supreme Court will hear Friedrichs v. the CTA. That’s a Supreme Court case that will have a real impact on your rights to work. The case is brought by billionaires and wealthy CEOs like the Koch Brothers who want to rewrite the rules to only benefit them. But you can fight back. Visit Americaworkstogether.us to find out how. The time is now to stand up for our working families again.”
In this case, Rebecca Friedrichs and 9 co-workers have filed a lawsuit against the California Teachers Association. At the heart of the lawsuit is the question of “whether it violates the First Amendment to require that public employees affirmatively object to subsidizing non-chargeable speech by public-sector unions, rather than requiring that employees affirmatively consent to subsidizing such speech.”
Center for Individual Rights President Terry Pell notes that “AFT paid Randi Weingarten $557,875, AFSCME paid president Lee Saunders $348,745 and AFL-CIO paid Trumka $322,131. Eskelsen Garcia was paid $345,728 as NEA vice president” and that “outgoing NEA president Dennis Van Roekel was paid $541,632.”
Richard Trumka and Randi Weingarten don’t represent “working families” any more than Donald Trump or Bill Gates represent union families. That won’t prevent the AFL-CIO and the America Federation of Teachers from pumping out propaganda like this:
Relying on research from a City University of New York union, America Works Together asserts CIR “has been funded by the Koch Brothers, other right-wing one-percenters, and even white supremacists.”
Naturally, they don’t itemize the “right-wing one-percenters” or the “white supremacists” that are allegedly funding this lawsuit. AFT and the AFL-CIO are long on chutzpah but short on personal accountability. Pell cut to the chase with this quote:
This is a fight on behalf of public employees like Rebecca Friedrichs and millions of other everyday public employees who are forced to fund organizations that no longer represent their interests.
The unions fight for wealthy union bosses. Occasionally, they’ve fight for their employees.
At the end of the day, expect the Supreme Court to rule in Ms. Friedrichs’ favor.
