Mark Janus is a Bad Person
Mark Janus, of the Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court case which
concluded on June 25th, 2018, is a really bad person.
If you are not familiar with the Janus case, here is a quick
summary:
Mark Janus, an Illinois state employee, took his union, AFSCME, to
court to argue that ‘his’ being forced to pay ‘agency fees’ to ‘his’ union to
represent 'his' interests in collective bargaining negotiations with a state or
municipality is compelling ‘his’ speech and a violation of ‘his’ first
amendment rights. ‘His’ argument was that any negotiation with a government municipality
was inherently political and therefore being force to fund those negotiations
was compelling ‘him’ to make political speech that he may or may not agree
with. Mark Janus went on to win ‘his’ case.

As per a piece in politico on February 26th, 2018:
At a breakfast meeting with reporters
Friday, Janus wandered a bit off-script. Far from denouncing collective
bargaining as compelled political speech, Janus said “I think unions have a
place. Collective bargaining is beneficial to people and workers. But where I
draw the line is when somebody tells me that I have to pay something that I
don't agree with." Like what? Janus didn’t elaborate. But, writes
POLITICO’s Andrew Hanna, Janus “suggested that he opposed AFSCME using his
fair-share fee to support the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton, and
said he'd be troubled if his fair-share fee went to any other candidate,
‘whoever the candidate may be,’ without his being consulted.”
Mark Janus CLEARLY has no idea what ‘his’ case was all
about. The law already bars unions from spending members ‘agency fees’ on
political candidates or causes. None of Mark Janus’s agency fees were used to
support a political candidate and if they were he would have been suing his
union or violating the law that was already on the books. This has been law for
40 years. Furthermore, union members have been mandated to pay agency fees because unions
themselves are mandated by law to represent state employees in negotiations for
wages and benefits. That representation costs money. Unions are mandated by
law to represent state employees, because the states do not and cannot negotiate
with each employee. State unions will now lack the financial means to get the
best wages and benefits for state employees. (Thanks Mark)
Mark Janus, it appears, knew none of this. He signed on to be the
subject of a case that would be an assault on public sector unions and the
livelihoods of his fellow workers for his own financial gain. He won his case
and got everything he wanted; and do you know what he did next? He quit his job
and took a job as a ‘senior fellow’ at the conservative think tank, the
Illinois Policy Institute. The role of a ‘senior fellow’ typically is to do
research, write papers, make appearances etc. I doubt Mark Janus will be doing
any of that. He’s on a lifetime vacation
here on out courtesy of Koch Industries.
After spending his career in a public sector union, Mark Janus used his
name to try to damage those unions ability to improve the lives of its members.
The damage done to unions and labor will last longer than Mark Janus’s lifetime. He may have a very nice long vacation, but he will undoubtedly have a very sad legacy.
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