Take Action | PATFA (Part-time Faculty Association of Maine)

Behind the Supreme Court case 'Janus': an attack on collective bargaining

By Randi Weingarten
President, American Federation of Teachers

I don’t write emails to our full membership and activist community often, but the Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court case warrants it.

The case is challenging the 45-year-old precedent that 23 states have used to determine wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of public employees’ jobs. As the Illinois solicitor general eloquently argued at the Supreme Court yesterday, these 23 states decided that, for labor peace and the efficiency of services, public employees can be represented by a union, and, as long as the union represents

Labor Visits the State House

Jim Seymour, PATFA vice president, represented our organization at a "Labor Lobby Day" at the Maine State House in Augusta on Feb. 11. Following are his observations:

Feb. 11 was a (cold) day to join the ranks of our brothers and sisters of the AFL-CIO, and the general consensus was that the turnout was strong and well-organized. I wanted to at least let my appearance add to the bodies of loyalists and to get a sense of the local labor movement from the perspective of the Legislature.

I ended up spending much of the time - once our legislative reps found their seats at around 10:30 a.m. -