Judge throws out anti-union laws

BOISE (AP) — A federal judge threw out Idaho’s two newest anti-union laws, saying the measures violate federal rules and would restrict the free play of economic forces.

The laws, intended to weaken the power of labor organizations in the state, were passed during the 2011 legislative session and were set to go into effect last summer.

However, two building and construction unions sued in U.S. District Court, and District Judge B. Lynn Winmill stopped the laws from going into effect while the lawsuit moved forward.

Proponents said the measures were simply expansions of Idaho’s right-to-work law.

The Open Access to Work Act banned project labor agreements that require contractors to forge pacts with unionized workers as a condition of winning a government construction job.

The Fairness in Contracting Act prohibited unions from using dues to subsidize member wages to help union-shop contractors submit more competitive bids and win more projects.

Winmill ditched the laws in a written ruling late last month.

He noted in his ruling that Congress set up the parameters under which construction employers and unions could bargain so they would be influenced only by their own economic power and the free play of economic forces.

The Open Access to Work Act upsets that balance, he wrote.

“The act skews those forces by robbing unions of the opportunity to even seek a project labor agreement on a public works project,” Winmill wrote.

Winmill acknowledged that the state and its political subdivisions might never decide to actually use a project labor agreement on a project. Still, he said, they should be allowed to freely make that choice without the “handcuffs of the flat prohibition mandated by the Open Access to Work Act.”

Winmill said the Fairness in Contracting Act is invalid because it would bar programs that are protected under the National Labor Relations Act.

“We fought pretty hard on this,” John Littel, regional political director for the Carpenters Union, told The Spokesman-Review (http://bit.ly/yJMBuK). “We were pretty surprised about how much momentum there was to really, I think, try to take a bite out of the unions, and specifically the carpenters.”

The Idaho Attorney General’s Office warned lawmakers early last year that those suing over the laws would likely win.

Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, who sponsored the bills, acknowledged there were legal issues but said he still thought the measures were OK.

“We had instances where the carpenters union from Portland was disrupting work, and I think that was the real emphasis behind the effort,” Goedde said.

The state hasn’t said whether it plans to appeal the court ruling.

The Inland Pacific Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors and the National Right to Work Legal Foundation both filed briefs in support of the new laws.

The Inland ABC has already filed a notice of appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying the organization should have been allowed to intervene as a full party in the case.