Public sector workers’ rights would be strengthened under new Wyoming bill

Wyoming legislators have an opportunity to protect public employees’ free speech rights with HB 178 — Public unions- transparency and dues withdrawal limitations act.

This legislation would prohibit the state government from deducting from public employee paychecks dues for labor unions, political action committees, political organizations, or political committees. It also requires labor organizations to publish an annual report outlining how many public sector employees it represents, how many employees pay union dues, and the amount it spent supporting or opposing candidates, legislation, litigation, and for consultants and vendors.

It means that unions and other political organizations must collect dues from their members directly instead of using state government as an ATM machine to fund political activity that public employees might vehemently oppose.

It flows from a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME, which held that public employee unions can’t collect fees from public sector employees without their consent, as it violated their First Amendment free speech rights. Prior to that decision, only those in right-to-work states like Wyoming had the freedom to choose whether or not to join one, with the main issue being that unions not only bargain for salaries and benefits, but used fees to lobby for candidates and legislation that did not align with all of their members’ viewpoints.

Following the decision, some states like Washington, New York and Maryland rushed to make it easier for unions to communicate with public employees and harder for outside groups to contact them to tell them about their rights. On the other hand, states like Florida and Arizona have moved to strengthen employee rights by adopting laws to prohibit automatic paycheck withdrawals and prohibit unions from using public employees for their own purposes on the taxpayer's dime.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a strong supporter of unions in the private sector, did not think they belonged in the public sector. In 1937, he wrote, “All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations.”

The reason: unlike in the private sector, where there is an economic pressure for unions to make reasonable demands, in the public sector, the taxpayer who pays the bills does not have a seat at the table.

Research shows that union membership dropped to an all-time low five years after the 2018 Janus decision, with the top four largest representing public employees losing over 730,000 members. This shows that when workers are given accurate information about union activities, the unions lose monopoly power.

While workers in Wyoming have the ability to opt out of union membership, requiring them to proactively send dues instead of having them automatically deducted from paychecks ensures that they want to belong without doubt.

One of the reasons Americans are so in the dark about their total taxes paid is that they are automatically deducted from paychecks. If everyone had to send in a monthly check to the government, my guess is that taxes would be substantially lower with the increased transparency and accountability.

HB 178 would provide public employees with the information they need to make informed choices about whether to join or decline union membership. And it would provide every Wyoming resident with a deeper understanding of how unions spend their money and time. Only those who seek to keep union activities shrouded from public view and shielded from the same fundraising requirements of other civic organizations would oppose this legislation.

May Wyoming continue to strengthen the rights of public workers that the U.S. Supreme Court made possible with its 2018 Janus decision.