Fairness Center

NEW TODAY: President and General Counsel Nathan McGrath is in the @WSJ with his piece, “How Labor Unions Feed Campus Antisemitism.”

“The judges pointed out what Mindy and her fellow union members have long known: the consequences of losing seniority are ‘not merely speculative’ and leave her ‘at greater risk of being leapfrogged’ on the seniority list by other employees," Fairness Center managing attorney Anthony Holtzman said. "We look forward to representing Mindy as she continues to hold union and state officials accountable for mistreating her.” Read more: buff.ly/8IovYw6

@thelegalintel reports: "A Pennsylvania court determined this week that an employee's loss of seniority, even for just a few weeks, is a real injury sufficient to establish standing." Mindy McFetridge "alleged that union and state officials ignored seniority rules during the COVID-19 shutdowns and kept her on unpaid leave while less senior employees continued to work." "McFetridge accused the union of violating its duty of fair representation by colluding with PennDOT to favor male union officials, ignoring the seniority and furlough provisions of the collective bargaining agreement, and refusing to file a grievance on her behalf."

"Workers shouldn’t have to take it on faith that union officials are handling their dues responsibly," McGrath adds. "There are more than 100,000 dues-paying public employees in Connecticut, federal data reveals. Without effective reporting rules, they are left in the dark until something goes badly wrong." "An unenforced law does nothing to protect the workers whose money is at stake." Read the rest here: buff.ly/OAlfeOG

Fairness Center president Nathan McGrath writes for @Rep_Am that Connecticut should live up to its promise of transparency for union members. While Connecticut has had a union financial transparency law on the books since 1957, "Connecticut unions apparently haven’t complied with the transparency law in decades, and state officials openly admit that they refuse to enforce it." "Two Connecticut public employees are trying to fix that long-running failure. They are suing their unions to enforce state law, with the help of the Fairness Center, the nonprofit law firm where I serve as president and general counsel."

“A handful of union insiders spent $40 million of teachers’ dues—including mine—on the union president’s political ambitions. That’s wrong, and I believe it’s illegal,” Dr. Dupont said. Read more: buff.ly/UQEFy8c

Two New Jersey teachers and a state think tank are separately challenging how the New Jersey Education Association used teachers’ dues to fund its political action committees. In their New Jersey Superior Court lawsuit, Dr. Marie Dupont and Ann Marie Pocklembo argue that the union broke their membership contract, made misrepresentations, and breached its fiduciary duty to union members when it spent more than $40 million of members’ dues to support then-NJEA president Sean Spiller’s gubernatorial campaign. The New Jersey Policy Institute @NJPIDoes is asking for the IRS to investigate up to $114 million in potentially misreported dues transfers from the NJEA to a Super PAC and for the New Jersey election commission to examine campaign donations that may have exceeded state limits.

@rep_am Read the @rep_am editorial here: buff.ly/Q9xKFGA

@rep_am editorial: "CT's unions should be transparent about political activity." “If they’re proud of where the money’s being spent, you’d think that they would be proud to show it to all of us. And if they are reluctant to do, that makes you kind of wonder, where are they spending the money?" Professor Earl Ormond said. "Mr. Ormond is not seeking damages – truly a refreshing element to his lawsuit. 'I just want to force them to disclose where the money’s being spent,' he said. That’s something that every state resident – especially those who attend the community college where he teaches, and others that have unionized workforces – should support."

“They threatened my career to silence me, but with this lawsuit, I’m leveling the playing field and forcing school officials to answer for trampling my rights," John says. Read more here: buff.ly/SICjAM4

After a DEI-style “Identity & Privilege” training, Hartford teacher John Grande was asked for his opinion. He gave it, but school district officials disciplined him because his opinion didn’t align with theirs. The teachers’ union refused to properly represent John in fighting the discipline because he wasn’t a union member. After John won an unfair labor practice charge against the union, he filed a federal lawsuit to defend his First Amendment right to free speech from suppression by school officials.

In 2020, the Fairness Center filed the complaint in the lawsuit, Yedlosky v. PSCOA, on the officers’ behalf to force union officials to address the officers’ concerns. A month later, state police arrested local union treasurer Bryan Peroni on felony theft and forgery charges for writing checks to himself amounting to nearly $30,000. Peroni pleaded guilty to theft and was sentenced. After our client’s lawsuit, PSCOA officials tightened oversight of their finances, revealing even bigger problems and even more mishandled funds. In July 2023, state police charged former PSCOA President Jason Bloom with six felony counts of theft for using the union’s credit card for personal expenses. Bloom wasn’t the only one; four other former PSCOA officers, including former presidents Roy Pinto and Larry Blackwell, were also charged with theft. “Too often, power breeds corruption. We want our litigation to help ensure that PSCOA officials are looking out not for themselves, but for the men and women who put themselves at risk every day in the state’s prisons," our clients said. Read more here: buff.ly/5IEdrKB

In Huntingdon, Pennsylvania corrections officers Chris Taylor and Cory Yedlosky suspected that union officials at the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association mishandled union funds. Their own audit of the union’s finances confirmed their suspicions: local officials had mishandled thousands of dollars of union members’ dues. Concerned, Cory, Chris, and a colleague brought their findings to Jason Bloom, then-president of the statewide PSCOA union, but he “blew off” the audit and “put [it] in a drawer to collect dust.” Cory and Chris resigned from the PSCOA in disgust, but they refused to give up on their goal of holding their union accountable. Their persistence would eventually reveal that union officials had spent members’ money on NFL tickets, a $12,000 Rolex watch, and outings at PGA Tour-level golf courses.

"Yet nearly five months later, NJEA leadership has not provided a comprehensive accounting to its members. There has been no detailed explanation of how $45 million was authorized, who approved specific expenditures, what oversight mechanisms were in place, or whether internal conflict-of-interest policies were properly observed," Mulvihill adds. "If everything was handled appropriately, transparency should not be difficult." Read more here: buff.ly/eOvBPc6

"How would you feel if you joined a union and paid $1,400 in dues each and every year, and the union’s president decided to run for governor and used $47 million of your and your fellow teachers’ dues without asking you? And then came in fifth place in the primary? Well, that’s what the NJEA’s president, Sean Spiller, did," @NJPIDoes' Andy Mulvihill writes for @njedreport "When teachers have their dues automatically deducted from their paychecks, they deserve to know those funds are being used responsibly and transparently. "That is why teachers, supported by the Fairness Center, filed lawsuits challenging how their dues were used and whether proper consent was obtained. It is also why the New Jersey Policy Institute, on whose board I serve as chairman, filed complaints with the IRS and the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission seeking clarity on whether political spending and disclosure requirements were properly followed."

"Union officials, including those in charge of 4Cs, outright ignore the law. They have not filed the required reports for decades. And from their perspective, why should they? The penalty for breaking this law is cheaper than most parking tickets: an absurd $25 fine. Worse, they aren’t even paying it," Earl adds. "An unenforced law protects no one. Ryan Bilodeau, a corrections officer and union member from Coventry, agrees. Together, we have filed a lawsuit asking the court to step in where regulators won’t and order union officials to follow the law." "At the end of the day, I just want to know where my money is going. Isn’t that reasonable? If union officials are confident in what they are doing, then they shouldn’t be afraid to show members their books." Read more: buff.ly/XTcFjFi

"Right now, it feels like my union dues disappear from my paycheck and go to some faceless, nameless decision-maker upstate who refuses to tell me how much is being spent or why," community college professor and retired police officer Earl Ormond writes for @hartfordcourant "I learned that Connecticut law gives union members the right to see this information. In fact, since 1957, unions like mine have had a legal obligation to file annual financial reports with the labor commissioner and make them accessible to members. The law goes even further, allowing members to ask the state to audit those records. "In theory, I should have all the information I need. In practice, I’m none the wiser."

Cheryl found the Fairness Center and filed a lawsuit. Within three months, the union backed down and agreed to settle the lawsuit by acknowledging her resignation and refunding her money–with interest–for the full three-year period. Read more: buff.ly/wksxoR7

Connecticut nurse Cheryl Spano Lonis challenged her union’s failure to honor her resignation and to provide her with constitutionally required notices and procedures. She resigned her union membership after reconnecting with her church and concluding that her religious beliefs precluded her membership in or financial support of the union and its activities. The union ignored her resignation, however, for nearly three years. The State of Connecticut continued collecting full union dues from her wages during that time. It did so even though the collective bargaining agreement between her union and the State provided that religious objectors could resign union membership and donate an amount of union fees equivalent to union dues to charity.

Read more here: buff.ly/q9DFD5q

“I’m delighted that my lawsuit forced union officials to admit something every high school student knows: Racial segregation is wrong. I hope this victory returns union officials’ focus to representing all teachers, rather than dividing us based on race," says Isaac Newman, who teaches history in Elk Grove Unified School District in the suburbs of Sacramento, California. When Isaac's union barred white members from running for a particular executive board seat, he sued the union under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. His goal was to prevent the union from, as he alleged in his complaint, segregating its members and imposing a racial litmus test on those seeking the union leadership position. The union folded within months, ending the segregated board seat, committing to not discriminating based on race in other union positions, and paying damages and attorneys’ fees.