Only One Supreme Court Justice Is Standing Up for the Right To Strike
And we're here for her
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had a real Ruth Bader Ginsburg moment last Thursday when she stood as the sole dissenting vote in support of striking union workers in a lawsuit brought by their employer. The Biden appointee issued her first solo dissent in a merits case in a labor dispute between Glacier Northwest and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, in which the former sued the latter for allowing some concrete product to be damaged on the day the truck drivers moved to strike. In her dissent, Jackson argued that the majority vote siding with Glacier Northwest, “risks erosion of the right to strike.”
Jackson also thought that, in addition to being plain wrong, her colleagues were overstepping their power in their majority vote, and said the courts had “no business delving into this particular labor dispute at this time.” Trump appointee and general potential evil person Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion in Glacier Northwest vs. Teamsters, arguing that the union-backed workers intentionally destroyed company property, meaning they were not protected by the National Labor Relations Act, which might have otherwise backed the lawsuit.
“The Union’s actions not only resulted in the destruction of all the concrete Glacier had prepared that day, they also posed a risk of foreseeable, aggravated, and imminent harm to Glacier’s trucks,” Barrett wrote. “Because the Union took affirmative steps to endanger Glacier’s property rather than reasonable precautions to mitigate that risk, the NLRA does not arguably protect its conduct.”
Jackson, however, wrote that “The filing of the General Counsel’s administrative complaint necessarily suffices to establish that the Union’s strike conduct is ‘arguably protected …’”
Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch—all conservatives appointed by Republican presidents—drew the same conclusion as Barrett, but each wrote their own unpleasant little diatribes as to why. Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts signed on to Barrett’s opinion. So what happened to the supposedly “liberal” justices? Yep, Elena Kagan, and even Sonia Sotomayor joined the Amy train as well. Womp womp.
Our liberal justices have a responsibility to vote how they see fit for each individual case, but as Jackson points out, every vote they issue sets a precedent and has a massive impact on future cases. In this case, their votes set a precedent of allowing companies to sue union workers for striking, which sucks the big one.
We need unions in the United States, and members of the Republican party seem to be systematically attacking them whenever they can. You already know that unions have successfully fought for workers’ rights, like a two-day weekend and a 40-hour work week. But how many workers do you know these days who can realistically support a family, without debt, by working only 40 hours with weekends off? Just sayin’. Some of these basic rights are starting to disappear because of times like these, when conservatives in power are doing everything they can to restrict union rights and bolster corporations’ legal abilities to quash employee rights.
(featured image: Alex Wong, Getty Images)
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