pudge's Journal: Speaking of Unions ... WFSE, You're Up

As some of you may know, the WFSE -- Washington Federaation of State Employees -- is currently, as reported in The Olympian, suing about 1900 state employees for nonpayment of dues.

Some of the stories are ridiculous, like people being sued for dues they weren't ever obligated to pay, and we could devote much to the discussion of how inane the whole thing is.

But my favorite part of the story is that the lawsuits literally have no legal merit. The contract is between the WFSE and the state government, not the individual employee, and nothing in the contract gives the WFSE any right to go after the individual employees.

The WFSE can sue the state for not enforcing the contract, but they don't want to alienate their base -- Democratic politicians -- especially in an election year. The state can fire or reprimand or take other action against the employees. But the WFSE has no legal right to sue the employees, since the employees have no agreement with the union.

Further, the money they are spending on these lawsuits is probably going to end up being more than what they get back from the employees.

It's clearly a bullying tactic by the WFSE to maintain power. They won't make money off this and they can't go after the state: they just want to scare public employees into paying.

Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.