this teamster election process was a scam
vote suffolk county legislator kevin mccaffrey out in november 2019
Suit Challenges New Jersey Law Limiting Time for Workers to Opt Out of Union
Action on behalf of two teachers follows Supreme Court ruling in June that enabled public-sector workers who weren’t union members to stop paying fees for collective-bargaining representation
Kevin McCaffrey faces challenge in union election
The Republican Suffolk County legislator is also president of Teamsters Local 707, which his opponent said is not getting his full attention.
Suffolk Legis. Kevin McCaffrey, left, also Teamsters Local 707 president, is seen with Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Peter King and union members on Jan. 2 in Hempstead. Photo Credit: Howard Schnapp
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy faces a lawsuit from two teachers over union dues. PHOTO: JULIO CORTEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two public-school teachers have sued New Jersey’s governor and largest teachers union, claiming they were forced to pay union dues in a violation of their free speech rights.
The lawsuit was filed on the teachers’ behalf by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a Virginia-based nonprofit. It follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June known as the Janus decision, which enabled public-sector workers who weren’t union members to stop paying fees for collective-bargaining representation.
The suit is part of what is likely to be a wave of litigation seeking to further weaken union strength. Filed in U.S. District Court for New Jersey on Friday, it involves two Ocean Township teachers, Susan G. Fischer and Jeanette Speck, who said they had joined the New Jersey Education Association years ago because they had to pay representation fees whether they were members or not. Shortly after the Janus ruling, they sought to drop out of the union and stop paying all fees and dues.
But, the suit said, their school-board employer and union refused to honor their request, citing a state law passed in May saying that workers who want to stop payroll deductions to employee organizations can do so only once a year, during a 10-day window at each anniversary of their hiring.
The suit says that union dues were taken from their paychecks in September without their consent, violating their rights. A lawyer said one of the teachers paid yearly union dues topping $1,200.
A spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association said it would fight the suit, which it called “another attack funded by wealthy antiunion groups seeking to undermine the rights of working people to form strong, effective unions.”
A spokesman for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy referred a call to the state attorney general’s office. Its spokeswoman declined to comment on pending litigation, but offered its response to a similar suit.
In that filing, the attorney general said the constitution didn’t prohibit states “from establishing specific times during which public employees may decide to cease paying union dues.” Further, the response said the constitution didn’t forbid states from holding employees to their financial commitments to a union for a limited period of time.
With the suit filed Friday, the National Right to Work Foundation said it seeks to represent potentially thousands of other teachers in a class action and overturn the state’s 10-day window. The foundation is involved in similar suits in Pennsylvania and California, and its attorneys were on the plaintiff’s legal team in the Janus case.
The Supreme Court ruling last summer came in Janus v. the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. That suit was filed by Mark Janus, an Illinois state employee who challenged a provision requiring him to pay about $45 a month in union fees for collective-bargaining representation.
Mr. Janus argued that the fees were akin to the government forcing individuals to support a lobbyist or political-advocacy group. Union leaders argued that without such fees, too many employees would be free riders benefiting from union-won contracts.
Write to Leslie Brody at leslie.brody@wsj.com
