Supreme Court to hear CA labor law challenge

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from the Bush administration and national business groups, challenging a CA law that bans the use of state funds to "deter" their employees from joining a union. LAT:

The union-backed measure was approved by the state Legislature and signed into law by then-Gov. Gray Davis in 2000. Since then, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been attacking the law in the federal courts. Its lawyers say the measure conflicts with the "level playing field" set by federal labor law. As the Chamber sees it, union officials and management deserve the same rights to try to persuade their workers to vote for or against a union.

The California law "is part of a concerted effort to spur union organizing by silencing anti-union employer speech," the Chamber's lawyers said in their appeal to the Supreme Court. They said the law's impact would fall most heavily in industries such as healthcare, where the state subsidizes care for elderly and low-income persons.

Last year, however, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the state law in a 12-3 decision. The majority, led by Judge Raymond C. Fisher of Los Angeles, noted that the law did not prevent employers from speaking out against unions. Rather, it prevented them from using the state's money in such efforts. Federal labor law does not restrict the "state's exercise of its sovereign power to control the use of its funds," the 9th Circuit said.

Employers can talk all they want, but they just can't use tax dollars to advance their anti-union agenda. If they want to spend money on union bashing they can pay for it themselves. It really is not that complicated and well within the state's right to regulate. The article is unclear what legal question the Supreme Court is using to justify hearing the case.

The case will come before the court in March and a ruling will be issued by late July.