FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Hooksett, NH – June 27, 2018 – New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Glenn Brackett today issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31:

Today’s Janus decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, which appears to be aimed at destroying the moral fabric of our society, is disappointing but not unexpected. This activist Court has, in short order, found that states should remain free to manipulate election districts to disadvantage voters who disagree with the bankrupt social and economic agenda of the political party now in power; and has ruled that out-right discrimination against the LGBT community is acceptable, as long as businesses thinly veil their discrimination in the sacred mantle of the First Amendment. It has determined that it is okay to deny entry to people from certain countries and ethnic groups, based on hateful stereotypes about their religious beliefs. In overturning decades of established law, it has ruled that employees cannot join together to make a collective complaint against an employer, making it virtually impossible for workers to hold employers accountable for patterns of discriminatory practices or stealing their wages.

And now with the Janus ruling, this Court has found that public employee unions must, under Federal law, provide representational services to employees who benefit from the negotiated protections of a union contract, for free.

The moral surrender of this Court to the right-wing corporate agenda is leading this country further down the path of moral indifference, and worse. We, the working people of America, deserve better than this – and by joining together and working in union, we will fight back the corrupt forces intent on dismantling worker protections and keeping wages low, and we will restore and make stronger the freedoms and promise of fairness and opportunity that the labor movement has always held out to working families: safe jobs with good wages and benefits, dignity and respect in the workplace for all, and the freedom to join together to bargain for better working conditions.

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Above:
New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Glenn Brackett and Executive Vice-President David Pelletier (UA Local 131) are sticking with the union after the June 27 Janus decision was announced.