Public employees won't recover union fees after court ruling
For now, public sector unions dont have to return money they collected from workers under a now prohibited system that allowed them for decades to charge fees to workers who did not want to join them.
A federal judge in Washington state this week dismissed a lawsuit that asked the Washington Federation of State Employees to reimburse so-called fair share fees to a group of workers who did not want to participate in the union but were compelled to pay the charges. The case will likely be appealed.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June issued a 5-4 decision that banned public sector unions from collecting any kind of fee from workers who do not choose to join them.
Since then, the attorneys behind the Washington case have filed lawsuits all over the country demanding that unions give money back to workers who did not want to participate in labor organizations, or who joined them only because they felt that no other option.
Read more: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article222444045.html