After the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) this summer ending the decades-long practice of forcing public workers to pay a government union in order to keep their job, lawmakers are circling the wagons to protect those unions.

HB 1575, introduced today, would prohibit in Washington the class action lawsuits that have been filed by public workers in other states seeking refunds of the agency fees they were forced to pay government unions before the Janus ruling.  The lawsuits argue that by opting out those workers made clear they had no desire to be member of, or financially support, their union.  Despite their objections, they were required to pay agency fees as a condition of employment. 

The Court held in Janus that compelling workers to pay those fees violated their First Amendment rights.  Since the fees were unconstitutional, the lawsuits argue agency fees were “improperly collected” from public workers and a retroactive refund is in order.  A ruling in favor of workers could cost unions around the nation hundreds of millions of dollars.

HB 1575 is similar to legislation passed in California last fall that protects government unions from such refund lawsuits.  SB 846 is part of a slew of union giveaway “budget trailer bills” that were signed into law after being tacked onto the state budget at the last minute.  Those bills have been heavily criticized for short circuiting the legislative process to benefit government unions. 

In addition to protecting unions from Janus refund lawsuits, California has passed bills that guarantee unions full access to hiring orientation sessions so they can explain the advantages of membership to new public employees, prohibit government agencies from publicly disclosing information about the site and time of those new employee orientations (which effectively stonewalls groups that might inform workers of their Janus right to not pay the union), prohibit public employers from discouraging union membership, mandate that unions, not employers, collect forms workers use to cancel their union membership, and force public employers to get union approval before sending out any “mass communications” about the Janus decision or other issues related to union membership.

Whether lawmaker’s efforts to shield unions will be helpful remains to be seen.  The lawsuits seeking refunds hinge on the collection of agency fees violating the Constitution and as such have been filed in federal courts. 

Read more about the union giveaways in HB 1575 and other proposed bills. 

Update: A Senate version of HB 1575, SB 5623, has also been introduced.