Labor officials have settled a class-action lawsuit alleging they forced unwilling members to financially support their unions, a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus v. AFSCME ruling.
A group of Ohio workers teamed up with the National Right to Work Foundation to sue American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Ohio Council 8, alleging that the labor organization had deducted dues from their paychecks even after they opted out of subsidizing the group.
The Supreme Court ruled in Janus that is unconstitutional for labor unions to force nonconsenting public employees to pay membership dues. It also ruled that no union dues or fees could be deducted from workers’ paychecks without the labor union first obtaining explicit consent. So, to make up for the fact that they’ve lost the ability to force members to pay dues and fees, labor unions have tried to circumvent the Janus ruling by relying on a “window period” policy.
Unions have reacted to Janus with convoluted schemes to prevent members from quitting — for example, creating windows as narrow as 10 days out of the year when workers are allowed to request that their dues payments be stopped — or even just 10 days before the union’s contract is up.
AFSCME Ohio Council 8 tried to use such a policy on a group of state government employees. This came even after the employees requested explicitly that their memberships be canceled and that they be freed from the union’s mandatory dues policy. AFSCME Ohio Council 8 responded with the “window policy.” The state government employees then turned to the National Right to Work Foundation, which in turn brought a lawsuit arguing the “window policy” is unconstitutional because it limits the workers’ ability to exercise their First Amendment rights.
Union officials decided to settle, agreeing both to stop enforcing the convoluted policy and to refund all dues collected from workers who chose explicitly to cancel their memberships and opt out of the mandatory dues policy. The Ohio workers will be refunded the money that was taken under the “window” scheme.
“This group of workers bravely challenged union bosses’ ‘window period’ scheme, and successfully protected not only their rights but also the rights of tens of thousands of their colleagues,” said National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix, whose organization is responsible for bringing the lawsuit against AFSCME Ohio Council 8.
Labor officials have already settled a “window period” lawsuit brought by a Minnesota public sector employee who faced similar obstacles when trying to opt out of paying the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. What’s different about the settlement this week is that marks a victory on the class-action scale. Which is to say: The Minnesota public sector wasn’t an aberration. She seems like she’s the norm, and labor unions should probably prepare for the likelihood that the “window period” scheme isn’t going to work as a solution to the Supreme Court’s Janus ruling.
