(Tampa Free Press)—The Liberty Justice Center has secured a significant win for workers’ rights, as a New Jersey union has agreed to settle a lawsuit involving unlawful paycheck deductions from a local plumber’s wages.
The case centered on Nicolo Giangrasso, a plumber employed by the Hamilton Township School District, who discovered his First Amendment rights under the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME.
The ruling established that public employees have the right to choose whether to join or financially support a union, and unions cannot withhold any dues or fees without the employee’s “affirmative consent.”
After learning of his rights, Giangrasso resigned from his union membership and requested that UA Local 9 stop deducting payments from his paycheck. However, the union continued to withhold money, falsely asserting that the Janus decision only applied to “union dues” and not to “assessments,” the label it used for the deductions.
In response, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit against UA Local 9 on August 1, arguing that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus prohibits any form of payment to a public-sector union without the employee’s explicit consent, regardless of whether the union labels the deductions as “dues” or “assessments.”
The union has now agreed to settle the case, leading to the voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit by Giangrasso.
“It should not have taken a lawsuit for the union to honor Mr. Giangrasso’s First Amendment rights,” said Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center. “But we are proud to have taken a stand for his constitutional rights and will continue to challenge union policies that violate workers’ rights across the country.”
“The union was playing word games with ‘assessments’ versus ‘dues’ to take money from my paychecks—even though they knew it was wrong and illegal. I’m grateful to the Liberty Justice Center for stepping in to defend my constitutional rights,” said plaintiff Nicolo Giangrasso.