(WILLIAMSVILLE, NEW YORK) – As tens of thousands of other Labor Leaders across the country have and will continue to do so, nearly 30 Representatives of individual Western New York Unions met on Monday (July 9th) afternoon to discuss the recent Janus vs. AFSCME decision rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court and the many possible tactics Organized Labor will look to implement to not only battle the ruling, but defeat its negative impact.

And while the Supreme Court ruling targets Public Employees, who now have the option of becoming Free Riders – not paying one red cent for the Union Services they receive in their workplaces by their decision to opt out of paying their fair share Union Dues, it was not lost on those assembled Leaders and Representatives that the Anti-Union/Anti-Worker directive would eventually find its way to impacting the Private Sector where Workers are also Unionized (For More, Read the June 28th Labor News Report, Headlined: Defiant Unions, Leaders Nationwide, Vow To Fight Back, Organize Even More After Janus Ruling).

Looking out across the large conference room at New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) Regional Headquarters in the Buffalo Suburb of Williamsville, there sat representatives from the Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation (WNYALF), the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the International Association of Machinists (IAM), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the Niagara County Deputies PBA, the Ironworkers, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), the Public Employees Federation (PEF), the United Steelworkers (USW), the Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), as well as the local chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans.  New York State Legislator Monica Wallace was also in attendance.

“While this ‘impacts us greatly, we have been preparing for this for the past two years,’” WNYALF President Richard Lipsitz - who chaired the meeting - told all. 

“Most Unions ‘have been doing their work in preparation’ (of the anticipated and negative Supreme Court ruling on Janus) - ‘but we’re not going away, even though Big Business, President Trump and the Supreme Court want us to,’” Lipsitz said.

NYSUT Labor Relations Specialist William Grande (Pictured Below On The Far Right In A Red Shirt/WNYLborToday.com Photos) presented those in the room with an overview of the Janus ruling, as well as taking the time to offer advice to those Labor Leaders that they “really need to know Public Sector Law” in order to understand where their Unions’ “legal obligations are” when it now comes to representing Workers in their workplaces. 

“This has nothing to do with ‘free’ speech,” Grande said. “It’s about ‘destroying’ the Labor Movement.  They ‘want to destroy’ Collective Bargaining.  ‘So the argument may come that just like Janus, people might just start saying they don’t want part of their taxes to be used for certain things’ (comparing Public Employee Mark Janus’s disagreement with his Union – AFSCME - when it came to some of his Union Dues being used for political action and spent on candidates he personally did not endorse).”

Many Unions - ranging from AFSCME to NYSUT here in New York State - have already hit the ground running by executing an overall strategy of directly contacting and personally reaching out to their Members one-one-one, knocking on the doors of Union Member homes, talking with them and when they aren’t there to answer the door, leaving a hang-card on their doorknobs with an overall message and contact numbers under the banner of Our Voice, Our Values, Our Union.

“The ‘goal is to educate our Members what the Union does for them and what they won’t get without a Union,’” NYSUT Regional Staff Director Mike Deely stressed.  “If you’re a Member, ‘you pay in full for your’ Union Services.  ‘Or, we’re looking at charging a fee, which each affiliate must decide, when it comes to treating Non-Members.’  ‘We have to impress on them’ the ‘value’ of our Union.  ‘We have to let them know what they’re going up against’ (without Union Representation).  ‘They need to know what it really means not being’ a Union Member.  Then we can cost it out and come up with a payment plan.”

Added Lipsitz: “There is a ‘silver lining’ in all of this.  ‘We must reach out and talk to our Members one on one.’  ‘There is no other choice.’”

Some of the Unions in the room, including one AFSCME Local, said they had 100% Union Membership in their Union.  Others, such as the Buffalo Teachers Federation, are nearly at the 90% mark in signed Members who’ve made the commitment to continue paying their dues.

Other Union Leaders, such as USW District 4 Staff Representative David Wasiura described a successful tactic the Steelworkers have used in the past by having Members who work in Right-To-Work (for less) States tell their stories about how not being Union represented has impacted them in their workplaces. 

Those Workers, Wasiura added, also tell the story of Union Workers who’ve opted out of paying dues, how they’re treated in the workplace by their Union Co-Workers as Free Riders and how those Workers “must go it alone” if they find themselves in the middle of a grievance procedure with management without Union Representation - which includes personally dealing with the high costs of footing the bill for their legal representation.  

He also made those aware in the room the USW represents more than 4,000 Workers in the Public Sector across the Northeast.

On that note, IAM Eastern Regional Grand Lodge Rep Ed Kuss (Pictured Below On The Far Left With His Hand In Raised/WNYLaborToday.com Photos) told a story of an IAM Member in Right-To-Work Michigan, where he was bowled over after finding out the would have to pay around $2,000 for his obligated half of an arbitration bill. 

“We tell them, ‘that’s what you’re going up against’ (without Union Representation),” said Kuss, who added the IAM has registered the highest percentage of dues paying Members in the South because of the initiatives the Union has taken.

Several Labor Leaders also impressed the need on all to focus on organizing, both from within to sign up more and more Union Members who might be contemplating opting-out for a number of reasons and outside the Union to build overall numbers. 

On another front, PEF Rep Scott Dobe injected the need for Organized Labor to “focus on the good things” Unions and their Members do in the communities where they work, live and raise their families, “which underscores the reason why Members ‘need to stay in’ their Unions.”

NYSUT’s Deely also informed those in attendance of the stepped up efforts of the Anti-Union side - who were chomping at the bit to get their campaigns going in order to start to begin to convince Union Members to opt-out just minutes after the Supreme Court issued its Janus ruling (For More, Read the July 2nd Labor News Report, Headlined: ‘Now, That Didn’t Take Long’ - White Plains Teachers ‘Flooded’ With E-Mails From DeVos-Funded Public Policy Group ‘Advising Them How To Opt Out’ Of Their Union).

Hours after last week’s Court ruling that Public Employees did not have to pay Union Fees if they don’t join their Labor Organization, Teachers in the White Plains School District began receiving e-mails advising them how to opt out of their Union.  The e-mails were sent by the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Conservative non-profit that has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations in recent years from the foundation started by U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her husband.

NYSUT Labor Specialist Grande also advised those in the room to make Union Members further and acutely aware that opting out of paying dues could also impact their health and retirement benefits.  “Without Union Representation, an employer can tell a non-represented Worker the company ‘can’t afford you anymore,’” he said.

It was not lost on those Labor Leaders in the room that the Labor Movement in New York State is far better off than other States because of the high Union concentration of Workers – one out of every four Workers in New York are represented by a Union.

And, coupled with a number of legislative actions recently taken by Governor Cuomo - whose re-election campaign has been endorsed the New York State AFL-CIO, whose affiliated Member Unions combine to represent 2.5 million Workers in the Private and Public Sectors, as well as in the Building Trades, Unions in New York are in a better position to battle the Janus decision (For More, Read the June 29th Labor News Report Headlined: Governor Cuomo Signs First-in-the-Nation Response to Janus Ruling That Prohibits State Entities from Disclosing Personal Contact Information For Public Employees to Protect Against Union-Busting and the July 1st Labor News Report Headlined: The New York State AFL-CIO Endorses Andrew Cuomo for Governor).