Ten Ohio public employees this week sued in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas to stop labor unions from drawing money from their paychecks.
Lead plaintiff Lukas Darling worked in property enforcement for the Boardman Township Planning and Zoning Department and resigned as a member of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) two years ago. The other nine petitioners have worked either in public schools or at a state agency. Each resigned as a member of either AFSCME, the Ohio Association of Public School Employees or the Ohio Education Association.
All plaintiffs claim the labor groups continued to charge the workers’ salaries directly. In June 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that government organizations cannot permit unions to obligate dues payments from individuals without those workers’ consent. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court’s majority, insisted that such arrangements entail public-sector unions forcing nonmembers to engage in advocacy, thus infringing on the Constitution’s free-speech guarantee.
“This procedure violates the First Amendment and can not continue,” the justice averred. “Neither an agency fee nor any other payment to the union may be deducted from a nonmember’s wages, nor may any other attempt be made to collect such a payment, unless the employee affirmatively consents to pay.”
According to the center-right Manhattan Institute, the Janus ruling applies to nearly six million state and local government workers in 22 states which did not previously protect employees’ paychecks from automatic union deductions. Labor organizations in various locales have fought the decision’s implementation.
Jay R. Carson, a senior litigator for the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute which took the Darling case, criticized AFSCME and the other defendants for allegedly ignoring the rights clarified in Janus.
“Once again, the government unions are trying to claim that these public servants — whom everyone acknowledges are no longer members of the union — are nonetheless obligated to continue paying union dues,” he said in a statement. “Ohio law simply does not allow this unethical practice, and we are asking the court to tell the unions and the government to stop illegally taking money from these workers’ paychecks.”
Buckeye’s complaint requests the county court order the labor organizations to refund all of the money they took from the plaintiffs after the workers’ resignation from the unions. The petition furthermore seeks a permanent injunction barring the coercion of any future payments from these employees to the unions.
AFSCME’s Central Region Office did not return a request for comment. At this writing, the local court has yet to post a filing from the union in response to the complaint.
– – –
Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Ohio Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Franklin County Court of Common Pleas” by Ɱ. CC BY-SA 4.0.
