For somebody who says she is pro-union, public school assistant principal Bhavini Bhakta certainly has her union worried.
She is one of the plaintiffs in Bain v. California Teachers Association, a lawsuit that could end the ability of public-sector unions to force workers like her to support its political activities. It is one of three cases vying for the Supreme Court’s attention that could be a serious blow to public-sector unions.
“I would like to see CTA reformed so that it actually represents us. I do believe in labor unions,” Bhakta, a registered Democrat, told the Washington Examiner. “I just don’t believe that what we have now works at all.”
Under California law, unions can charge teachers for expenses related to collective bargaining as well as the unions’ political activities, regardless of whether the teachers support that political spending. Bain v. CTA argues that the political fees are unconstitutional under the First Amendment and dissenting teachers such as Bhakta shouldn’t have to pay for them. Private-sector union workers already have the right to opt out of those fees under the Supreme Court’s 1988 Beck decision.
Bhakti, an assistant principal at Arcadia Unified School District in Arcadia, Calif., and her co-plaintiffs, teachers April Bain and Clare Sobetski, are being represented with help from StudentsFirst, the nonprofit group founded by education reformer Michelle Rhee.
Should Bhakta and her co-plaintiffs prevail, it could be a severe financial blow to the unions, which depend on the funding to their political spending. The Supreme Court already has taken a skeptical view of these fees. In 2012’s Knox v. SEIU, it said the union could not make members pay a one-time special assessment for political spending without giving them the opportunity to opt out first.
Bain v. CTA is before the West Coast’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the more liberal appeals courts. “We are just waiting