(Lebanon Daily News)—Four Lebanon County employees are suing the county and a union they say required them to pay dues after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed that practice.
“Our clients have repeatedly made it clear to Lebanon County and Teamsters Local 429 that they do not consent to the deduction of union dues from their paychecks,” said attorney Jeffrey Schwab of the Liberty Justice Center, which is representing the employees, in a news release.
“After (the Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME), the County was required to obtain affirmative consent to withhold union dues from any of its employees. Dues checkoff authorizations signed before Janus are invalid because they were signed before employees had a choice to not pay agency fees or other money to the union as nonmembers.”
Two officers in Teamsters Local 429 did not immediately return phone calls requesting comment. Lebanon County Administrator Jamie Wolgemuth said the county has no comment because the case involves pending litigation.
The lawsuit against Lebanon County, Teamsters
The four county mental health employees were members of Teamsters Local 429. However, they allege in a federal complaint filed Feb. 27 that they would not have joined the union if they were not legally compelled to pay “fair share” fees required of employees that elected not to join the union.
In a 5-4 ruling in June, the Supreme Court said compulsory “fair share” union dues for public employees violates the First Amendment rights of those employees by forcing them to support unions that advocate for public policy they may oppose.
The ruling was denounced by many unions, who said those employees directly benefit from “fair share” payments and there were already legal safe safeguards in place to prevent unions from using such payments for political purposes.
The Lebanon County lawsuit says the four employees informed Teamsters in July and September that they wished to resign from the union and to stop the withholding of union fees from their paychecks. The union insisted they could not immediately resign, the complaint alleges.
An attorney for the four employees then asked Lebanon County in October to stop withholding dues, but the county did not, it continues.
The county did stop the withholding of dues for two of the employees in November but has not yet done so for the other two employees, the complaint says.
In addition to Teamsters and Lebanon County, the lawsuit names Attorney General Josh Shapiro and three members of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board as defendants.
Liberty Justice Center filed a similar lawsuit in Philadelphia on behalf of a state employee who alleges the commonwealth continued to deduct union dues in violation of the Janus decision.