Whether a public employee union's use of its government-granted authority as exclusive bargaining representative to compel employees to choose between a voice and a vote in their working conditions and their political autonomy triggers First Amendment protection

QUESTIONS PRESENTED unions representing everyone in a bargaining unit negotiate the wages and working conditions of Massachusetts public employees. Taxpayers play no part in these negotiations. Here, the union also excludes from negotiations all represented employees who do not financially support its partisan political activities. 1. When a public employee union uses its governmentgranted authority as employees’ exclusive bargaining representative to compel employees to choose between a voice and a vote in their working conditions and their political autonomy, is that choice so attributable to the state as to trigger First Amendment protection? 2. Under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, may a state allow an exclusive bargaining representative to muzzle the speech of employees by denying them a voice and a vote in their working conditions if they choose to refrain from financially supporting partisan union politics? (i)