Today’s Supreme Court ruling in Harris v. Quinn regarding home care workers in Illinois does not affect HSTA or our members. It leaves intact the ability of HSTA and teacher unions to negotiate fair wages, hours, and working conditions for members and to remain a strong force on behalf of quality public education for all students. The decision was mixed for unions, however, since it forbids extending fair share fee requirements to what the court referred to as “quasi-public employees,” including the home health aides in question in this Illinois case.
Historically, HSTA has been good for our members and good for public education in Hawaii. Teacher working conditions are our students’ learning conditions. Through the collective bargaining process, teachers have negotiated for smaller class sizes, more classroom learning instead of high-stakes standardized tests that don’t help students and they spoke up for the resources that our students need to succeed like up-to-date text books and computers.
The Supreme Court decision is a significant blow to SEIU and places in jeopardy efforts to create effective new statutory frameworks for organizing home health care workers and child care workers. Weakening unions does nothing but weaken the middle class. Teachers stand by caregivers and other everyday heroes hurt by this ruling.
Working people will continue to pull together and keep up the fight for safe communities, good jobs and freedom at the workplace. We are saddened at this assault on the healthcare workers in Illinois who do some of the hardest, most important jobs taking care of the most vulnerable in their communities.
We will continue to monitor the ruling.
RESOURCES:
Read the decision here:
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/11-681_j426.pdf
NEA President: Supreme Court silences voices of working families
http://www.nea.org/home/59549.htm
New York Times Article
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/business/supreme-court-ruling-on-public-workers-and-union-fees.html?_r=0
NEA President: Supreme Court silences voices of working families
Harris v. Quinn ruling creates uncertainty, instability for economic prosperity
WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court of the United States today struck another blow against working families with its narrow 5-4decision in Harris v. Quinn when it eliminated agency fee arrangements for Illinois home healthcare workers. By casting doubt on case law that has been settled for decades, the Court’s ruling also creates insecurity and instability for employers and unions throughout the public sector. Harris v. Quinn was brought by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTW), a political group whose extreme agenda seeks to weaken the power of working people.
At issue in the case was whether non-union members could reap the wages, benefits and protections negotiated in a collectively bargained contract without needing to pay their fair share. The National Education Association, joined by California Teachers Association and Change to Win, filed anamicus brief with the Supreme Court to expose the truly radical nature of NRTW’s arguments and underscore their audacious claim that public-sector collective bargaining itself is constitutionally suspect.
The following statement can be attributed toNEA President Dennis Van Roekel:
“Quality public services, economic stability and prosperity starts with strong unions, but today the Supreme Court of the United States created a roadblock on that path to the American Dream. This ruling jeopardizes a proven method for raising the quality of home health care services—namely, allowing home health care workers to join together in a strong union that can bargain for increased wages, affordable health care and increased training.
“Americans count on quality public services provided by public employees like educators. We need workplaces, including public schools, where front-line employees have a voice. Today’s decision shuts the door on one proven method for ensuring that public sector workers’ voices are heard. At a time when we are just starting to dig out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, we should be creating an economy that works for all of us—not taking radical steps that undermine the rights of public workers while creating uncertainty and instability in the workplace.
“As a high school teacher and coach for 23 years, I saw how the entire team benefited when we all worked together. With today’s ruling, the Supreme Court took away the fairness and camaraderie that comes with working in a team. Agency fees are a common-sense, straight-forward way to ensure fairness and protect equity and individual rights. Every educator who enjoys the benefits and protections of a negotiated contract should, in fairness, contribute to maintaining the contract. And fair share simply makes sure that all educators share the cost of negotiations for benefits that all educators enjoy, regardless of whether they are association members.
“Despite today’s decision, we know that public sector workers will continue to organize—in public sector bargaining states and non-bargaining states, in agency fee states and right to work states—because public sector workers know that a union is the best way for all of us to ensure good schools, quality public services and economic prosperity.”