Response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME
Magazine, Immigration,CLUE Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice
(June 27, 2018, Los Angeles) – Today’s Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME is another attack on the workers in this country, another sign that the U.S. Supreme Court has surrendered its independence as the third branch of our federal system to become an instrument of the Trump administration.
Even as immigrants, people of color, and vulnerable workers of all stripes are losing protections every day through Trump’s policy war of extermination, the Supreme Court has chosen to deny unions the main instrument by which they exercise any voice in public policy, a voice that has always aimed for better conditions for all workers.
“We see this decision as an end run by the powerful around workers’ political voice of opposition, an effort to destroy the lobbyists of the poor and a bid to silence the voices of the vulnerable,” said Rabbi Jonathan Klein, CLUE executive director. “This is hard to see in a country where freedom of expression, especially political expression, is supposed to be a founding principle.”
But even with this adverse Supreme Court decision, what we see on the ground is more, not less, interest in unionizing. CLUE and its union partners will continue to respond to this interest and agitate in every space available to grow those unions and rebuild that workers’ voice.
As CLUE, we educate, organize, and mobilize the faith community to accompany workers and their families in their struggle for good jobs, dignity, and justice.
