Between The Lines - Kenneth Margolies: In Harris v Quinn case, SCOTUS Rules Home Care Workers Don’t Have to Pay Union Dues (Week Ending July 18, 2014)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

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In Further Erosion of Union Rights, Supreme Court Rules Home Care Workers Don’t Have to Pay Union Dues

Posted July 9, 2014

Interview with Kenneth Margolies, a senior associate at the Worker Institute at Cornell University, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Harris v Quinn, an important labor rights case on June 30, was understandably overshadowed by the justice’s controversial Hobby Lobby decision that allowed privately held for-profit companies the right to deny birth control coverage to their employees, based on an employers' religious beliefs.

In Harris v Quinn, the Court ruled that certain home health care workers are "partial public employees" because they are paid through Medicaid to provide care for their own family members. The conservative majority’s decision means that workers who choose not to join a union do not have to pay union dues in an Illinois district where a majority of home care workers voted to be represented by the Service Employees International Union. That ruling was partially based on the free speech rights of those employees.

The conservative court majority specifically said they were not overturning the precedent case in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, which declared every employee represented by a union, even though not a union member, must pay union dues supporting the cost of the union’s collective bargaining and contract-administration activities. But Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, called into question the Abood precedent, inviting a future challenge – signaling that conservative justices may be ready to overturn it, which would spell disaster for the American labor movement. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Kenneth Margolies, a senior associate at the Worker Institute at Cornell University. Here he explains what the Harris v Quinn ruling means and the impact it could have on public employees and the broader labor movement.

KENNETH MARGOLIES: The Supreme Court ruled in this specific case of the home care workers involved that they did not have an obligation to pay that fee because it violated their free speech rights. And so, but it only applies to those particular employees because the Court found they were not full public employees, but partial public employees.

BETWEEN THE LINES: I guess from the point of view of some of these workers who are taking care of their own family members and who chose not to join the union, do you think that's a legitimate distinction from full public employees?

KENNETH MARGOLIES: Well, it is a somewhat unusual work situation, where somebody is being paid to care for their relative, and the basis for that is that either the family member wouldn't get any care because the caregiver member would have to get another job, or the total income for the family would be so low that it'd be hard to survive. I think that's why they decided this was a reasonable thing to do. Plus, you know, being cared for by a family member is usually preferable to someone you don't know. But I think in terms of are they employees or not, it's kind of non-traditional employment, and I think there's been a lot of activity lately of jobs that people didn't think of quite as full employees, that they're now thinking of as employees, like nannies and home cleaners, who have generally been excluded from the labor laws. And so they're now saying, Look at what we do. We do important work. If we didn't do it, someone else would have to do it. We should be treated like any other worker.

BETWEEN THE LINES: So in that sense it's an advance for workers, but in other ways, like this Supreme Court decision, we seem to be moving backwards. What do you think will be the impact of this decision?

KENNETH MARGOLIES: I think this decision is eroding some of the basic foundations of unionism in the U.S. People sometimes look at this issue: Should you pay a fee even if you don't want to be a member? Maybe you disagree with the union. The main reason that happened was because in days when violence was often used, or blacklisting and things like that, if people weren't required by the contract to join, the employer would work on them individually to quit. And that's a lot of it. It's also to support the work of the union, which is a lot of work, and so it should be supported by everyone who benefits from it. But I think there's been a steady stream of things that are eroding the power of unions, and I think this will contribute to it by kind of whittling away at who is an employee and who isn't. I think it's no secret that Justice Alito, who wrote the opinion, has a very, very low opinion of organized labor and probably would have gone further if he'd had the votes.

BETWEEN THE LINES: It sounds like you see this decision as opening the door wider to anti-union moves. What do you think is a possible response from the union movement and supporters of unions?

KENNETH MARGOLIES: You know, there's a number of things that unions know they need to do and they've been doing their best to pursue them. There's no one thing. There's probably a legal strategy that I'm not that up on because I'm not a lawyer, but I'm sure the lawyers involved have one. But I think, broader, unions have to do everything they can to increase the loyalty of their members, so there are fewer and fewer people who choose not to join. And it's interesting, because in Right to Work states, mostly in the South, there are many examples of where unions get 90 percent membership, because they're forced to, and they have a lot of effort to talk to each person and they understand what a union's about and why they should be supportive. In a situation, where you get the money anyway, it allows unions to be a little more lax and not necessarily make the effort to talk to everyone and explain to them what the union's about. So you have a kind of reservoir of people who are anywhere from indifferent to the union to perhaps (those) resentful that they have to pay.

For more information about the Worker Institute at Cornell University, visit ilr.cornell.edu/workerinstitute.