HB 2643 VOTE: NO – Died In Committee
Status (overview) of bill: https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2019R1/Measures/Overview/HB2643?pubDate=2019-01-18-16-14
Committee assigned to bill: https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2019R1/Committees/HBL/Overview
This bill transfers responsibility to pay basic union fees for government workers to the government (taxpayers) for all public employees for collective bargaining and protecting rights of employees.
Personal Choice and Responsibility
Undermines the 2018 US Supreme Court decision Janus vs. ASCFME which prohibits collecting fees from nonunion members, and taxpayers are nonunion members. Membership subsidizing the unions’ political activities remains voluntary under this bill but payment of fees for bargaining and employee rights is transferred to taxpayers.
Fiscal Responsibility
This bill converts the ‘fair-share’ dues which were ruled illegal under Janus to a fee based on percentage of employees who are members, now to be paid by taxpayers and deposited into a separate account to be used by the unions for bargaining and protecting rights of employees. Establishes the Employment Relations Protection Account for deposits of assessed amounts, not to be used for political activity. The Janus decision wasn’t about use of funds, but forced contribution to unions. This is forced contribution by nonmembers (taxpayers). This bill assesses public employers (taxpayers) and distributes it to the labor organization.
Limited Government
Asking taxpayers to support union activities changes the relationship of unions, making them a quasi-agency.
I can’t believe the legislature is serious about this; putting taxpayers on the hook to directly pay the government worker’s union dues – Representative Holvey (Lane County HD8) is the chief sponsor of this bill. Send him an email telling him we are not part of their union and we dont want to pay their union dues: Rep.PaulHolvey@oregonlegislature.gov
Of course, it has the “emergency clause” in it too, so the public cant vote it out once it becomes law.
In essence they are voting themselves a raise, since they wouldnt have their union dues subtracted from their paycheck. It would come out of the taxpayers paycheck.