Lawsuit challenges union dues schemes in Illinois
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[October 19, 2021]
By Kevin Bessler
(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme
Court will consider a petition from some Illinois teaches seeking to end
“escape period” schemes that kept them from cutting off union dues.
The Supreme Court ruled in its 2018 Janus decision that employees of
state and local governments cannot be forced to pay union dues or fees,
and that government workers must affirmatively consent before union dues
are taken from their paychecks.
Chicago Public Schools educators Joanne Troesch and Ifeoma Nkemdi sued
the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Board of Education over a
union boss-created “escape period” that blocks workers from exercising
their right to terminate union dues deductions from their paychecks
outside the month of August. The two are receiving free legal aid from
the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
“We litigated Janus, so providing free legal aid to individual teachers
and other employees so they can fully exercise on their rights under
Janus is really what the National Right to Work Foundation does and will
continue to do,” said attorney Bill Messenger.
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In the lawsuit, the teachers explain their “did not
know they had a constitutional right not to financially support” the
union hierarchy until the fall of 2019, when they discovered their
Janus rights while looking for information on how to continue
working during a strike that union bosses ordered in October. They
said they sent letters the same month to union officials to exercise
their Janus right to resign union membership and cut off all dues
deductions.
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Both educators said they received no response until
November of that year, when union officials confirmed receipt of the
letters but notified them they would continue to seize dues from the
teachers’ paychecks until Sept. 1, 2020, as allowed by the union’s
“escape period” scheme.
The Illinois care along with a similar case from New Jersey will be
presented to the Supreme Court on Oct. 29.
“Escape periods are one of the many ways union bosses try to keep
workers paying dues without the trouble of attracting their
voluntary support,” said NRWLDF president Mark Mix. “The Supreme
Court should take up this issue and end these widespread schemes to
circumvent the Court’s Janus decision.” |