Dem legislator has a "workaround" to the decision of SCOTUS unions

The highest Democratic legislator in New York offers a late run around a US Supreme Court ruling that could cost the powerful unions of public employees more than $ 100 million a year.

Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) a long-time ally, plans to introduce legislation that would allow unions to include the costs of collective bargaining in their contracts with government agencies to replace fees obligatory prohibited by the decision Janus c. AFSCME last month.

"said Gottfried, who served for 50 years in Albany." I do not think there's a lot of logic in Janus' decision, but the state of New York – in our Constitution and in our law – has long recognized that public servants have the right to bargain collectively. "

stated last month that fees collected from non-union members instead of dues violated first amendment protections against speeches The unions argued that all employees should help cover the costs of contract negotiations since all employees are covered by the contract.

Membership dues of the union members were not affected by the decision.

According to the arrangement proposed by Gottfried, the unions would be Gottfried described the plan in a note to other state legislators that was leaked to the Empire Center, which It assailed the proposal.

Be a terrible policy on many levels, "said Ken Girardin, political analyst at the conservative think tank of Albany. "You could talk about $ 400, $ 500, $ 600 per worker per year."

"This will come out of someone's pockets and be handed over to the union," he added. "The practice would be indefensible."

Girardin said politically powerful unions and their allies in the state government would play numbers games that would eventually stick taxpayers with the bargaining tab without sacrificing wage increases.

"Unions can not write their own ticket," he said. "Unions often spent years without a contract because the public employer and the union did not reach an agreement."

"It's a real bargaining process." The Empire Center released a report earlier this year estimating that the Janus decision could cost up to $ 112 million a year for unions in the United States. Public Sector of the State of New York.