When Frank Ricci became president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 825, he and the executive board implemented a plan to improve the union’s finances. They assessed the services their statewide affiliate union, the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut (UPFFA), was providing and decided that the benefits didn’t justify the costs. So, in 2016, the Local 825 executive board voted to end their membership in the statewide firefighters’ union. That didn’t sit well with UPFFA officials, who tried to convince the local union to reconsider their decision and resume dues payments. When that didn’t work, statewide union officials hired a collections agency to recover $52,000 in dues they claimed Local 825 still owed. Someone even called Frank’s mother and told her he was going to jail if he didn’t pay.

Frank called the Fairness Center, and we accepted Local 825 as the firm’s first Connecticut client. On Local 825’s behalf, we filed a lawsuit to affirm the local union’s separation from the UPFFA and to bar the statewide union from collecting membership dues they were not entitled to. The UPFFA then charged Local 825’s leadership with “conduct unbecoming a union member” to remove them from their local union leadership positions, which could have derailed Local 825’s litigation. In response, the Fairness Center took on Frank and his colleague as clients, filing an injunction to halt the union charges to allow the larger case to continue. The injunction was granted and the UPFFA’s retaliation failed. Read more: buff.ly/C8UZvXc

Karin Yaniv left Israel to conduct research and pursue her microbiology career at UC Berkeley, but along with the position came the representation of a union, UAW 4811, with a history of anti-Israel sentiment. Less than a week after the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel, union officials condemned Israel and called for it to end its “occupation and apartheid system.” Union officials soon encouraged union members to attend a pro-Palestine rally which was advertised with posters depicting Israel engulfed in flames and a man wielding an AK-47.

Karin joined a union subcommittee to influence the union’s attitude and actions toward Jews, but the subcommittee did its work without her. When Karin objected, a union official acknowledged that she had been intentionally excluded from the subcommittee communications and resources and that the union could exclude her in this way even though it would be “illegal” in other contexts, according to the complaint. The only other union members excluded like this were also Jewish and Israeli. Read more: buff.ly/GqG8oIC

"If CT's public-sector unions want to get political, they should disclose donations," writes the @rep_am editorial board. "The outcome of the lawsuit by two public-employee-union members who demanded financial transparency was predictable. The union members won their case, having asked for nothing more than a court order that the unions follow the law. "The union members who stood against their unions’ lawbreaking were Bryan Bilodeau, a Department of Correction employee with AFSCME Local 391, and Earl Ormond, a professor of criminal justice for Naugatuck Valley Community College. He’s a member of the Congress of Community Colleges. "What was the unions’ offense? They ignored a state law requiring them to file financial reports and make the data available to members."

“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," said Sacramento-area history teacher Isaac Newman. 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.

Workers are helping to change Connecticut's labor culture for the better, Fairness Center president Nathan McGrath writes for the @hartfordcourant: "Since the 1960s, Connecticut’s public-sector unions have benefited from laws and regulations that cemented their control over public servants—first municipal employees, then teachers, then state workers. State government now has the highest unionization rate in the country," he writes. "Unfortunately, laws designed to balance this concentration of power have gone unenforced or even ignored. That leaves teachers, corrections officers, professors, and many others with few options if they believe union officials are abusing their power. "But for some, the courts have proven an effective means to show union officials that they are still accountable to the law."

Ashely Kjarbo, a New York IRS employee, was facing financial difficulty and wanted to stop paying monthly union dues. So, she filled out a form to resign her membership in the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). Union officials did everything they could to thwart her. But Ashley's refusal to take “no” for answer in the face of powerful opposition ensured 2,500 of her colleagues will have their rights protected.

In Dupont & Pocklembo v. NJEA & Spiller, teachers Dr. Marie Dupont and and Ann Marie Pocklembo say that the New Jersey Education Association’s membership card, which functions as a contract between the member and the union, told teachers that contributing to the union’s PAC was optional. The teachers made it clear that they did not want to contribute to the union’s PAC, but their money ended up in a union PAC supporting then-NJEA president Sean Spiller’s run for governor anyway.