Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-1466_2b3j.pdf
Page Number: 32.0

Cite as:  585 U. S. ____ (2018) 

27 

Opinion of the Court 

speech.  Brief  for  Union  Respondent  22–23;  see  Brief  for 
State Respondents 23–24. 

This  argument  distorts  collective  bargaining  and  griev­
ance  adjustment  beyond  recognition.    When  an  employee 
engages in speech that is part of the employee’s job duties,
the employee’s words are really the words of the employer. 
The  employee  is  effectively  the  employer’s  spokesperson. 
But  when  a  union  negotiates  with  the  employer  or  repre­
sents  employees  in  disciplinary  proceedings,  the  union 
speaks  for  the  employees,  not  the  employer.  Otherwise, 
the employer would be negotiating with itself and disput­
ing  its  own  actions.    That  is  not  what  anybody  under­
stands to be happening.

What is more, if the union’s speech is really the employ­
er’s  speech,  then  the  employer  could  dictate  what  the
union says.  Unions, we trust, would be appalled by such a 
suggestion.  For  these  reasons,  Garcetti  is  totally  inappo­
site here. 

B 

Since  the  union  speech  paid  for  by  agency  fees  is  not 
controlled by Garcetti, we move on to the next step of the 
Pickering  framework  and  ask  whether  the  speech  is  on  a 
matter  of  public  or  only  private  concern.    In  Harris,  the 
dissent’s  central  argument  in  defense  of  Abood  was  that 
union  speech  in  collective  bargaining,  including  speech
about  wages  and  benefits,  is  basically  a  matter  of  only
private interest.  See 573 U. S., at ___–___ (slip op., at 19– 
20)  (KAGAN,  J.,  dissenting).  We  squarely  rejected  that 
argument, see id., at ___–___ (slip op., at 35–36), and the 
facts of the present case substantiate what we said at that 
time: “[I]t is impossible to argue that the level of . . . state 
spending for employee benefits . . . is not a matter of great 
public concern,” id., at ___ (slip op., at 36). 

Illinois, like some other States and a number of counties 
and cities around the country, suffers from severe budget