• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
MENUMENU
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FlaglerLive Board of Directors
    • Comment Policy
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Values
  • Live Calendar
  • Submit Obituary
  • Submit an Event
  • Support FlaglerLive
  • Advertise on FlaglerLive (386) 503-3808
  • Search Results

FlaglerLive

No Bull, no Fluff, No Smudges

MENUMENU
  • Flagler
    • Flagler County Commission
    • Beverly Beach
    • Economic Development Council
    • Flagler History
    • Mondex/Daytona North
    • The Hammock
    • Tourist Development Council
  • Palm Coast
    • Palm Coast City Council
    • Palm Coast Crime
  • Bunnell
    • Bunnell City Commission
    • Bunnell Crime
  • Flagler Beach
    • Flagler Beach City Commission
    • Flagler Beach Crime
  • Cops/Courts
    • Circuit & County Court
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • Federal Courts
    • Flagler 911
    • Fire House
    • Flagler County Sheriff
    • Flagler Jail Bookings
    • Traffic Accidents
  • Rights & Liberties
    • Fourth Amendment
    • First Amendment
    • Privacy
    • Second Amendment
    • Seventh Amendment
    • Sixth Amendment
    • Sunshine Law
    • Third Amendment
    • Religion & Beliefs
    • Human Rights
    • Immigration
    • Labor Rights
    • 14th Amendment
    • Civil Rights
  • Schools
    • Adult Education
    • Belle Terre Elementary
    • Buddy Taylor Middle
    • Bunnell Elementary
    • Charter Schools
    • Daytona State College
    • Flagler County School Board
    • Flagler Palm Coast High School
    • Higher Education
    • Imagine School
    • Indian Trails Middle
    • Matanzas High School
    • Old Kings Elementary
    • Rymfire Elementary
    • Stetson University
    • Wadsworth Elementary
    • University of Florida/Florida State
  • Economy
    • Jobs & Unemployment
    • Business & Economy
    • Development & Sprawl
    • Leisure & Tourism
    • Local Business
    • Local Media
    • Real Estate & Development
    • Taxes
  • Commentary
    • The Conversation
    • Pierre Tristam
    • Diane Roberts
    • Guest Columns
    • Byblos
    • Editor's Blog
  • Culture
    • African American Cultural Society
    • Arts in Palm Coast & Flagler
    • Books
    • City Repertory Theatre
    • Flagler Auditorium
    • Flagler Playhouse
    • Flagler Youth Orchestra
    • Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
    • Palm Coast Arts Foundation
    • Special Events
  • Elections 2022
    • Amendments and Referendums
    • Presidential Election
    • Campaign Finance
    • City Elections
    • Congressional
    • Constitutionals
    • Courts
    • Governor
    • Polls
    • Voting Rights
  • Florida
    • Federal Politics
    • Florida History
    • Florida Legislature
    • Florida Legislature
    • Ron DeSantis
  • Health & Society
    • Flagler County Health Department
    • Ask the Doctor Column
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Business
    • Covid-19
    • Children and Families
    • Medicaid and Medicare
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Violence
  • All Else
    • Daily Briefing
    • Americana
    • Obituaries
    • News Briefs
    • Weather and Climate
    • Wildlife

A Dagger in the Heart of Unions, Workers and Democracy: Behind the Janus Ruling

June 28, 2018 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

A National Nurses United rally. (Facebook)
A National Nurses United rally. (Facebook)

By Bonnie Castillo

The Supreme Court’s transparent effort to decapitate public sector unions in its 5-4 Janus vs. AFSCME decision on Wednesday places a wide swath of public health and safety protections in its crosshairs as well.


By encouraging public workers to withdraw any financial support for the union’s considerable cost for representing them, the court’s corporate-aligned majority hopes to financially paralyze unions, leaving all its members and non-members alike vulnerable to employer retaliation if they act to defend the interests of the public as well as their own well being.

For registered nurses, the collective power of a strong union, such as National Nurses United, gives RNs the ability to challenge healthcare employers when they seek to slash patient services, close hospitals, or carry out unsafe practices, such as inadequate staffing, to pad profit margins and revenues.

Similar concerns face other settings, where unionized workers have the unity of their union to advance public priorities such as safe drinking water, clean air, untainted food, and less dangerous workplaces.

Many unions, like NNU, have been preparing for this widely expected ruling for months, emphasizing the public need for strong unions against the growing corporate and right wing assault on workers’ collective voice. As United Electrical Workers president Peter Knowlton aptly pointed out in response to Janus, the biggest threat to workers is not their union or unified co-workers, it’s their employer.

But there’s a darker underbelly to this threat, symbolized not just by Janus, but also by a steady stream of court decisions and actions in Congress and many states, all increasingly under the sway of anti-democratic and anti-union forces, like the Koch brothers, and other corporate and rightwing groups, that handpick legislators and judges to do their bidding.

It’s a dagger pointed at the heart of our nation, and our democracy.

One telling hint of who’s behind the curtain came shortly after the Janus ruling and the follow up announcement that Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring.

President Trump quickly announced he would anoint the successor to Kennedy from a pre-drawn list of far-right judges, the same list that produced Neil Gorsuch, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s announcement he would move swiftly to confirm the new Justice before voters go to the polls in November. Less reported was an announcement from the Koch network that it would chip in at least $1 million to confirm any judge “in the mold of Justice Gorsuch.”

The Koch’s chilling agenda, and all the tentacles they influence, is extensively spelled out by historian Nancy MacLean in her seminal work Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America.

Collective action, represented by unions at their best, is a principle target. So is everyone who stands in the way of wealthy corporations and the super rich. Their end game is to overturn the fundamental premise of majority rule, and lock in place permanent Constitutional changes to bar any limits on their oligarchical rule.

Evidence of their work is everywhere:

Voter suppression laws enacted in dozens of states;

Partisan gerrymandering to protect and expand the hold on Congress;

Expansion of anti-union right-to-work laws that mirror the Janus ruling in the private sector;

New laws to restrict public protest, to pre-empt local governments from progressive challenges to corporate and rightwing power, and the legal ability of people to challenge corporate power in the courts; and

Decimating the ability of government to provide for public health, safety and economic security, including through attacks on common good programs like Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, workplace safety, and environmental programs.

To this crowd, as MacLean notes, no public program or collective action is legitimate, if it can or has the potential to interfere with “liberty,” by which they mean unbridled authority and wealth accumulation for the elite and the super rich. Some call it the “full liability society” – you’re on your own, for everything.

Appointing judges to carry out decisions like Janus is part of the agenda. Koch aligned academic centers have reportedly already trained up to 40 percent of all federal judges. And the packing of Congress, White House, and state governments with rightwing funded politicians, abetted by the corruption and hijacking of elections is increasingly evident.

We’re not giving up.  Collective action is the only way forward to protect our nation, our democracy, and all our people, the way every substantive reform has ever been one in the U.S. The game is not over, but the clock is ticking.

Bonnie Castillo, RN is the executive director of National Nurses United. Follow her on Twitter: @NNUBonnie

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
You and your neighbors collectively read our articles about 25,000 times each day (that's not a typo) with up to 65,000 daily reads during emergencies like hurricanes. Flagler County residents rely on FlaglerLive for essential, bold and analytical journalism that cannot be found anywhere else. But we depend on your support. Please join our December fund drive! If you donate the cost of a scoop of ice cream, you will be helping us continue to provide comprehensive local news and honest, serious journalism for our community. If you can donate more or become a monthly donor, even better. Donations are tax deductible since FlaglerLive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit news organization. Donate by clicking anywhere in this box. Think of it as buying a scoop, in every sense of the term!  
All donors' identities are kept confidential and anonymous.
   

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rosie O'Donnell says

    June 30, 2018 at 1:27 pm

    What if the Union doesn’t actually represent you? Why should you be forced to pay?

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says

    July 2, 2018 at 8:21 am

    Your headline says “A Dagger in the Heart”, get with the times, daggers aren’t used in this country ; AR-15’s with 30 round clips are.

    Reply
  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Advertisers

  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Recent Comments

  • Craig on Crumbl Cookies Opening Soon at Palm Coast’s Island Walk
  • FlaglerLive on Its Streets Degrading, Palm Coast Looks for Electric Vehicles to Pay Their Fair Share of Road Taxes
  • Pierre Tristam on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 3, 2023
  • Pogo on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 3, 2023
  • Deborah Coffey on Debt Deal a Rare Triumph for Political Center
  • Skibum on Drunk Driver Allegedly Goes Nuts on Deputy After Crashing Into Hydrant
  • Joshua Rosenbloom on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 3, 2023
  • Day One. on Flagler Sheriff’s Sgt. Breckwoldt, In Charge of Narcotics Unit, at Center of Abuse of Power Allegation
  • The dude on Drunk Driver Allegedly Goes Nuts on Deputy After Crashing Into Hydrant
  • Jane on Drunk Driver Allegedly Goes Nuts on Deputy After Crashing Into Hydrant
  • Friedrich Gretsch on Palm Coast’s Belk Converted Into One of 16 Outlet Stores as Company Struggles
  • jeffery seib on Drunk Driver Allegedly Goes Nuts on Deputy After Crashing Into Hydrant
  • Jimbo99 on Debt Deal a Rare Triumph for Political Center
  • Lance Carroll on At FPC, Misplaced ‘Man Cave’ Culture and Improprieties Cause Demise of Girls’ Basketball Coach
  • Aves on A Trans Teen No Longer Feels Welcome in Florida. So She Left.
  • TR on Drunk Driver Allegedly Goes Nuts on Deputy After Crashing Into Hydrant

Log in