On June 15th, the US Supreme Court handed down a 9-0 decision - unions cannot use money involuntarily deducted from public employees paychecks for politics without asking permission first. The S-R ran a generic AP story in the National news round up. What a missed opportunity! This case started with a Mead teacher who innocently objected to WEA politics and landed at the US Supreme Court.
That teacher, Cindy Omlin, was scheduled as our luncheon speaker at the Ponderosa Republican Women’s Club on the day the decision was released. We listened to her enthusiastic first hand account of the intimate setting of the courtroom, the actions of the defending WEA lawyer and our own Attorney General Rob McKenna at the bar, the justices behind the bench and the very human reactions she observed as the case was presented.
The AP story barely mentioned Washington. It omitted reference to HB 2079, signed by Gov. Gregoire in an end run around both the Paycheck Protection initiative approved by the voters in 1992 and the anticipated court ruling against the WEA. Our Democrat controlled legislature supported unfair union practices, unfair practices UNANIMOUSLY declared by the Supreme Court as lacking in common sense. But wait, it gets even sillier - HB 2079 was passed with an emergency clause! Look up HB 2079 at www.washingtonvotes.org and find out how your representatives voted.
June 20, 2007
