Seven teachers in California filed a class-action lawsuit seeking repayment of fees previously paid to their union, after the Supreme Court recently ruled unions cannot collect fees from nonmembers to make up for the cost of collective bargaining.
It’s the kind of case that could potentially cause further damage to teachers’ unions, after last week’s ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31. In that decision, the justices ruled 5-4 that compelling nonmembers to pay fees violates their First Amendment rights. They also decided that public employees must affirmatively opt into their unions, rather than having to opt out.
“This lawsuit will enable teachers like me to recover the agency fees that we were wrongly forced to pay against our will,” said Scott Wilford, the plaintiff in the new lawsuit, which was filed in the Central District of California’s federal court, in a statement.