CHICAGO (WAND) – Illinois government workers are suing AFSCME for refunds after they say union fees were illegally collected.
The federal class action suit comes after the 2018 Janus vs. AFSCME Supreme Court ruling, which said people who aren’t members of public sector unions can’t be forced to pay “agency fees” or “fair share fees”. CNBC reports Mark Janus, the plaintiff in that case and former child support specialist in the Illinois government, was arguing the $45 monthly fee he paid to AFSCME violated his first amendment rights and was a form of political advocacy because the contract negotiations of public employees are with the government.
The court ruled 5-4 in his favor, overturning the Abood vs. Detroit Board of Education ruling from 1977.
The Liberty Justice Center and National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation are representing nine Illinois workers arguing to get their money back. They say success in the lawsuit would help them and over 2,700 other state employees get over $2 million from AFSCME. Union fees paid from May 1, 2017 through June 28, 2018 are included in the suit, because the LJC says that range is what the Illinois statute of limitations allows.
“We’re fighting for these workers because they were put in an unconstitutional situation: Pay the union or lose your job. This was a gross violation of these workers’ rights to free speech and freedom of association, and we’re glad the Supreme Court agreed,” said Patrick Hughes, president of the Liberty Justice Center. “Now it’s time for AFSCME to rectify the situation by returning to workers the money they should never have taken in the first place.”
AFSCME Council 31 Public Affairs Director Anders Lindall offered a response when WAND-TV reached out about the lawsuit. He issued the following statement:
“The anti-worker, corporate-funded front groups behind this litigation recently brought the same case in the name of Mark Janus and lost. The federal district court in Chicago found that Council 31 acted in good faith when it collected fees from Janus—consistent with a US Supreme Court ruling of 40 years’ standing—to help pay the costs of representing all workers. That ruling echoes what more than a dozen other federal and state courts have decided in similar cases.
Non-members received wage increases, health insurance coverage, vacation time and other benefits that the union negotiated. They accepted these improvements and never objected to paying the related fees. The anti-worker, corporate-funded front groups prolonging this failed litigation want to use the courts to further their political attack on working people and our union. Their repeated lawsuits are nothing but a greedy grab for more.”
During the Janus vs. AFSCME case, AFSCME made a similar argument, saying fees prevented non-union members from free-riding when they benefit from union negotiations.
Janus, who joined attorneys and workers at the Wednesday lawsuit announcement, wants about $3,000 in union fees refunded. Those feels were paid in the time between when he filed his case and the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision.
