Posts tagged Washington Supreme Court
WA Supreme Court OKs ‘secretive’ process for state worker union negotiations
July 1, 2025 // “That occurs once the operating budget has passed both houses of the Legislature and been signed by the governor or been allowed to become law without the governor’s signature,” wrote Justice Steven Gonzalez in an opinion agreeing with the majority. Justice Sal Mungia was the lone dissenter. Mungia wrote the exemption ended when the Office of Financial Management and the union reached agreement, not when the governor signed the budget months later. “The people have the right to know what their government is doing. That value is the basis for the Public Records Act,” Mungia wrote. “(T)he Fund was entitled to the requested information.”
FREEDOM FOUNDATION FILES PERC COMPLAINT AGAINST WFSE CITING DISCRIMINATION, INTERFERENCE WITH LABOR RIGHTS
October 11, 2023 // Additionally, it’s unlawful for exclusive bargaining representatives to “restrain or coerce an employee” in the exercise of their right to not join a union. Conditioning access to equitable representation on a worker joining a union coerces the employee to join the union. As for Fix, he was exclusively represented by WFSE for the purposes of collective bargaining. Therefore, WFSE owed him a duty of fair representation that was breached when Yestramski refused to communicate with him. Public employees like Todd Fix who have no desire to affiliate with unions are constantly bearing the price of exclusive representation regimes, the original sin of modern public-sector labor law principles. In exchange for their compliance with exclusive representation laws, workers have the right to be represented fairly by their exclusive representative. And they have a right to make their own choices about joining a union without fear of losing access to equitable representation.
US Supreme Court’s ruling in strike case puts unions on defense
June 8, 2023 // However, workers aren’t shielded unless they take “reasonable precautions” to protect employers’ property from “foreseeable, aggravated, and imminent danger due to the sudden cessation of work.” A 1959 Supreme Court ruling established that courts must defer to the board's initial judgment if it’s even arguable that the legal dispute arises from a strike or other legally-protected worker actions. The lawsuit was essentially an attempt to overturn that precedent. The court didn’t go quite that far (although some conservative justices invited the opportunity to do so in a future case).
FREEDOM FOUNDATION DEFENDS ITS PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS TO WASHINGTON SUPREME COURT
May 19, 2023 // “Washington employees have a right to know they cannot be forced to pay union dues if they wish not to for any reason,” continued Phillips. “Maybe they aren’t satisfied with their union representation or don’t feel they’re getting a good service, or maybe they just want to keep more of their own money to put gas in their car and food on their table.” “Regardless, the State of Washington as the employer and the state’s largest government employee union are working together to block the Freedom Foundation’s ability to contact these employees about their options, and they’re misleading their own government employees to scare them into thinking their private information will be made public.”
Unions exert sway in Wisconsin Supreme Court election
April 7, 2023 // The Wisconsin Supreme Court race became the most-expensive state court election in U.S. history, with total spending at around $45 million, nearly three times the amount spent in the previous state judicial race. Protasiewicz’s campaign and her supporters spent at least $24 million on the non-partisan judicial election, compared to her opponent, Dan Kelly, whose campaign and supporters spent $19 million. The reason behind the large fundraising gap may be the influence of labor unions, like the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). A news report noted that labor unions inside and outside of Wisconsin spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to back Protasiewicz. “A Better Wisconsin Together Political Fund, a coalition of labor unions and progressive social advocacy groups, has spent more than $5 million on ad buys,” the report said, “… Major national unions like American Federation of Teachers have contributed $500,000, while the International Union of Operating Engineers PAC has forked over $300,000 to A Better Wisconsin Together.” Labor unions allegedly circumvented the state’s $18,000 direct contributions limit to Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates by pooling funds together as a coalition.
Worker Advocate Files Supreme Court Brief Opposing Union Boss Attempt to Evade Liability for Property Damage
November 8, 2022 // . Union officials also have the privilege to foist monopoly “representation” over all workers in a workplace regardless of whether they are union members or voted for the union in power. Probably the most abusive union boss privilege of all is the power to force employees in non-Right to Work states to pay union dues or fees just to stay employed, while maintaining monopoly bargaining control in a workplace with no effective term limits. “This Court should treat unions like all other citizens or entities, clarifying that they can be liable for damages in state courts under ‘the common law rule that a man is held to intend the foreseeable consequences of his conduct,’” the brief concludes.
U.S. Supreme Court to decide if employers can sue unions over vandalism
October 5, 2022 // Glacier in its petition filed in May told the Supreme Court that the NLRA did not preempt lawsuits related to vandalism and other illegal conduct. The company said it would be left without a remedy if the state court ruling stands, because the NLRB lacks the power to award money damages for destruction of property. Glacier also said the Washington Supreme Court decision clashed with rulings by other state courts and at least two federal appeals courts. The Teamsters in opposing the petition said the strike itself was clearly protected by the NLRA. Glacier could have saved the concrete if it had arranged for replacement workers or management employees to make deliveries during the strike, the union said. The case is Glacier Northwest Inc v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union No. 174, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 21-1449.
Teachers union urges Washington Supreme Court to uphold capital gains tax
May 16, 2022 // The Washington Education Association has a filed a brief with the state Supreme Court that calls for opening the door to the imposition of a graduated income tax without a constitutional amendment or voter approval.