The Oregonian
June 30th, 2014
A U.S. Supreme Court decision appears to give thousands of Oregon care workers the right to opt out of paying dues to two of the state's major public employee unions.
Monday's 5-4 ruling by the court in a case involving Illinois home-care workers could directly affect some 24,000 workers represented by Service Employees International Union in Oregon and another 1,500 represented by the Oregon chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
However, the court did not strike down laws -- including one in Oregon -- that requires public employees in union-represented jobs to either pay union dues or support the union through "fair share" fees.
Instead, the court's decision dealt with workers who aren't directly employed by government but are supported by public funds.