NEW YORK CITY FILES AMICUS BRIEF TO DEFEND LABOR UNIONS’ RIGHT TO COLLECT FEES

Legal papers defend union rights to collect essential fees from all public employees benefiting from collective bargaining

  Mayor Bill de Blasio and Corporation Counsel Zachary W. Carter today announced that the City of New York has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, et al., to defend a legal right that labor unions view as crucial to their success and survival. The City’s amicus brief, along with the briefs of labor leaders, states from across the country, dozens of cities and counties large and small, public schools and hospitals, economists – including three Nobel laureates, constitutional law and labor law professors, members of the clergy across all faiths and faith-based organizations, private and public sector employers, governors, and a large number of nonprofits and foundations whose mission it is to ensure human dignity, equality and fairness to our economy, and others, was filed Friday.

At issue in Janus is the ability of unions to collect fees (known as “agency shop fees”) from public employees who elect not to join a union but nonetheless benefit from union collective bargaining activities. For over forty years, the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of agency shop fees, but plaintiffs in Janus now seek to change the law and limit union rights.

“New York City is the city it is today because of the hardworking unionized men and women who built it and run it. Our city is stronger because of unions’ ability to organize and fight for all of our rights. Especially in the face of our current political climate, we should be bolstering tools for empowering and protecting workers not making them more difficult to come by,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The City’s brief explains how New York City pioneered collective bargaining for public employees and how the City adopted agency shop fees to protect workers and the public through a fair and effective collective bargaining system. The fees are modeled after successful private-sector labor relations strategies.

“Prohibiting agency shop fees would strip jurisdictions like New York City of a tool that has for years helped foster productive relationships between governments and their public workforces. Agency shop fees have strengthened a collective bargaining process that has worked for us for nearly half a century,” said Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter.

Collective bargaining activities in New York City are time- and resource-intensive and require extensive expertise from both the government and union sides. Agency shop fees finance the provision of tools for negotiation and mediation that help resolve disputes for the benefit of public workers and city residents.

The entire 43 page amicus brief can be found here.