"Emergency Temporary Assessment to Build a Political Fight-Back Fund"

Katherine Mangu-Ward | April 1, 2008

The 2008 election season is upon us, and unions are still getting legal beatdowns for bad behavior in 2005:

A federal judge has ordered California State Employees Association (CSEA) union officials to offer rebates to up to 28,000 state employees who are not union members. Imposing a “special assessment” in addition to mandatory dues, union officials seized an additional 25% of forced union dues to wage their campaign against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s modest reform measures on the 2005 ballot.

Turns out an “Emergency Temporary Assessment to Build a Political Fight-Back Fund” on every state employee isn't exactly kosher. The union managed to extract $3 million from non-union workers alone.

To extend your five minutes of anti-union hate, go here. Or wait it out for a great upcoming column on the impending horror of card check (the unions ask: what's so great about secret ballots anyway?) by David Weigel.

Full disclosure: I was once a deeply resentful and unwilling member of The New York Times' Guild. Needless to say, reason is not a union shop.

UPDATE: The decision applied to Service Employees International Union Local 1000, an independent affiliate of the CSEA.