On August 1, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit against a New Jersey union that violated a local plumber’s constitutional rights and tried to justify the violation through word games—claiming that a Supreme Court decision doesn’t apply because the union called the money illegally taken from his paychecks “assessments” rather than “dues.”
In the landmark 2018 decision Janus v. AFSCME, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that public-sector employees have a First Amendment right to choose whether they will join or financially support a union. Unless employees “affirmatively consent” to waiving that First Amendment right, unions cannot legally withhold dues or other fees from their paychecks.
Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, many unions resist recognizing employees’ rights. As a result, public-sector employees like plaintiff Nicolo Giangrasso must go to court to make the union recognize their constitutional rights and stop withholding money from their paychecks.
Nicolo Giangrasso is a plumber employed by the Hamilton Township School District. When he began working there, he joined the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local 9 (UA Local 9). Since then, the School District has withheld union dues from his paychecks for the union.
When Mr. Giangrasso learned about his rights under Janus v. AFSCME, he sent a letter to UA Local 9 resigning his union membership and requesting an end to the dues deduction. The union refused, claiming that the Janus decision didn’t apply to Mr. Giangrasso because the union called the money deducted from his paychecks “assessments” rather than “dues.”
But what the union calls the money does not matter—in the Janus decision, the Supreme Court held that neither dues, agency fees, “nor any other form of payment to a public-sector union” can be withheld from employees who have not agreed to the withholding.
On August 1, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit on Mr. Giangrasso’s behalf, arguing that the union and the school district are violating his First Amendment rights under Janus by continuing to take dues from his paycheck without his consent. The lawsuit urges the court to require the union to recognize Mr. Giangrasso’s rights and cease deducting union dues and fees from his paychecks. The lawsuit also asks the court to require that the union returns the money illegally taken from Mr. Giangrasso after he opted out of the union.
“Under Janus, government employees cannot be compelled to pay any money to a union in order to keep their jobs. But that’s exactly what’s happening to Mr. Giangrasso,” said Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center. “Government employees have a First Amendment right to decide whether they want their money to support public-sector unions—and whatever the union might claim, employees don’t lose their constitutional rights simply because a union relabels that money ‘assessments’ instead of dues.”
“I was told I had to join the union and pay dues to keep my government job. And now that I learned about my right to opt out, the union is still trying to take my money by playing word games about ‘dues’ versus ‘assessments.’ What they’re doing is illegal,” said plaintiff Nicolo Giangrasso. “I’m grateful that the Liberty Justice Center has stepped in to defend my rights.”
Giangrasso v. United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local 9 was filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey on August 1, 2024.
The Liberty Justice Center’s legal filings in Giangrasso v. United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local 9 are available here.