The nine justices will hear a challenge backed by anti-union
groups to the legality of fees that workers who are not members of
unions representing teachers, police, firefighters and certain other
government employees must pay to help cover the costs of collective
bargaining with state and local governments.
About two
dozen states require payment of these so-called agency fees, covering
roughly 5 million public-sector workers, that provide millions of
dollars annually to unions. Their disappearance would deliver another
blow to a U.S. organized labor movement already in a diminished state
compared to past decades.
The justices considered a
similar case in 2016, and after hearing arguments appeared poised to
overturn a 1977 Supreme Court precedent that let unions force
non-members covered by contracts negotiated by organized labor to pay
fees in lieu of union dues to help cover non-political union
expenditures.
But the death of conservative Justice
Antonin Scalia the following month left the court with an even split of
conservatives and liberals, and its 4-4 ruling in March 2016 did not
resolve the legal question.
Source: Yahoo News
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