Faculty Seek To Sever Ties With Their Union Because Of Its Anti-Semitic Positions

Suit was filed last week in a New York federal district court by six faculty members at City University of New York who are seeking to sever all ties with the faculty union known as the Professional Staff Congress. They contend that they are required to use PSC as their exclusive bargaining agent. The complaint (full text) in Goldstein v. Professional Staff Congress/CUNY, (SD NY, files 1/12/2022), alleges in part:

3. All but one of the plaintiffs are Jewish, and several of them resigned from PSC following its adoption in June 2021 of a “Resolution in Support of the Palestinian People” ... that Plaintiffs view as anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, and anti-Israel. Since the Resolution, PSC has continued to advocate positions and take actions that Plaintiffs believe to be anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, and anti-Israel, in a manner that harms the Jewish plaintiffs and singles them out for opprobrium, hatred, and harassment based on their religious, ethnic, and/or moral beliefs and identity....

JNS reports on the lawsuit.

Suit Challenges Union's Application of Religious Exemption To Fair Share Fee Requirement

Under Pennsylvania's Public Employee Fair Share Fee Law, public employee unions may enter collective bargaining agreements that require non-union members to pay a fair share fee instead of dues. However for employees who object on religious grounds, the law permits the employee to pay an equivalent amount to a nonreligious charity agreed upon by the employee and the union.  This week, a teacher in a high school near Pittsburgh has filed suit in federal district court claiming her due process and free speech rights have been infringed by the union's refusing to accept the charities to which she wants to send her fair share fee.

The complaint (full text) in Misja v. Pennsylvania State Education Association, (MD PA, filed 6/18/2015), says that teacher Linda Misja initially requested that her payment be sent to People Concerned for the Unborn Child, but the union refused insisting that this would be sending the fees to an organization that furthers plaintiff's religious beliefs, instead of to a nonreligious charity as required by law.  Misja then requested that her fees be sent to the National Rifle Association Foundation. The union rejected this choice because it has a policy of not agreeing to the charitable subsidiaries of political organizations. According to the complaint:

Ms. Misja seeks a declaratory judgment that the PSEA cannot maintain its practice of withholding her funds indefinitely, without access to an independent decision-making process to resolve the disputed application thereof, and cannot engage in pernicious viewpoint discrimination by restricting her choice of charity simply because Ms. Misja’s chosen charity takes positions with which the PSEA does not agree.

The Fairness Center has issued a press release and a legal backgrounder on the case.