Salt Lake City, UT (April 22, 2009)<\/b> \u2013 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit yesterday reversed itself and ruled to uphold a Utah statute prohibiting union officials from using payroll deduction to divert teachers\u2019 and other government workers\u2019 money into union electioneering.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cUtah has a legitimate interest in avoiding the reality or appearance of government entanglement with partisan politics\u201d and Utah\u2019s Voluntary Contributions Act \u201cplainly serves the State\u2019s interest in separating public employment from political activities,\u201d the court held.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe National Right to Work Foundation joined in an amici<\/i> brief with the Utah-based Sutherland Institute (and others) to defend the Utah statute which had previously been struck down. After initially siding with union attorneys who argued the law somehow violated the constitutional rights of the union, the Tenth Circuit put the case on hold pending the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving a similar Idaho statute.\n<\/p>\n
\nNational Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys successfully argued in their briefs in Utah Education Association et al. v. Mark Shurtleff<\/i> \u2013 just as they did at the U.S. Supreme Court in Ysursa v. Pocatello Education Association at al.<\/i> \u2013 that unions have no constitutional right to use government resources to deduct dues from workers\u2019 paychecks.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe recent Supreme Court’s decision and now this Tenth Circuit ruling makes clear what should have been obvious: union officials have no constitutional right to use government resources to line their pockets,\u201d said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cIt is bad public policy for government bodies essentially to act as bagmen for union political monies.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cBut there was a much more effective way to address this problem. The Utah legislature should simply have banned all union payroll deductions, not just those for narrowly defined political activities,\u201d continued Gleason. \u201cUnfortunately, the definition of politics covered by such laws is so narrow that union bosses are essentially able to continue business as usual.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nSince Utah is a Right to Work state, employees have the right to refrain from union membership and cannot be lawfully compelled to pay any dues whatsoever to a union. Employees who wish to ensure none of their dues are spent to promote a union\u2019s agenda can best do so by exercising their Right to Work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Salt Lake City, UT (April 22, 2009)<\/b> \u2013 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit yesterday reversed itself and ruled to uphold a Utah statute prohibiting union officials from using payroll deduction to divert teachers\u2019 and other government workers\u2019 money into union electioneering.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cUtah has a legitimate interest in avoiding the reality or appearance of government entanglement with partisan politics\u201d and Utah\u2019s Voluntary Contributions Act \u201cplainly serves the State\u2019s interest in separating public employment from political activities,\u201d the court held.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n