In light of the Supreme Court’s recent Janus v. AFSCME decision, Senate Republican Leader Mark Schoesler sent a letter to Governor Inslee asking what actions he will take to ensure Washington State complies with the ruling.

In Wednesday’s Janus decision, the Supreme Court ruled that requiring nonmembers of public unions to pay “fair share fees” is a violation of their First Amendment rights. In his letter, Schoesler asks how the governor will direct his administration to comply with the recent ruling.

Specifically, Schoesler points to HB 2751, a bill passed during the 2018 legislative session that removes the written authorization requirement to remove union dues or the equivalent fees from employee paychecks.

“Given the court’s opinion that it is illegal to automatically extract union dues and fees from public employees’ paychecks, without their written consent, I am further asking for your anticipated timeline when union dues and fees will no longer be taken from state employee paychecks without their explicit authorization,” writes Schoesler.

Schoesler also requests that Inslee allow the public to view collective bargaining negotiations to ensure that policy changes put in place by Janus are followed. He writes,

“It would also give the people less reason to perceive that there may be a connection between contract negotiations and political campaign contributions.”

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