Rochester, NY (April 24, 2012) – Four Monroe County probation officers have won relief in their protracted federal legal battle against two government unions for violating their First Amendment rights.

The four officers, led by David Scheffer, filed the suit with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys.

The probation officers sued Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) union and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union for deliberately violating their First Amendment rights by seizing forced union dues from their paychecks for illegal union expenditures. The officers charged that union officials were spending their forced dues on union organizing drives, despite the officers’ objections.

In 2005, the officers filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York seeking to prevent the further collection of forced union dues and asking for full refunds and punitive damages. The officers won on appeal in the U.S. Appeals Court of the Second Circuit in 2010 when the court found that the CSEA union hierarchy illegally spent workers’ forced dues money on organizing.

One of every ten dollars spent by the CSEA union hierarchy was spent illegally on organizing.

The District Court judge last week ordered CSEA union officials to refund each officer of all illegally-seized union dues and interest.

The officers’ suit initially sought similar relief for all nonmember public employees represented by CSEA union affiliates throughout the State of New York, a number believed to be in the thousands. However, the courts’ decision only gives relief to the four officers in this case.

“Employees should not have to go to federal court to stop use of their forced union dues being illegally spent on union boss politics and organizing,” said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. “However, as long as public employees in New York labor under forced unionism, these abuses by union officials will inevitably continue.”

“This is why New York desperately needs to pass a Right to Work law making union affiliation and dues payments completely voluntary,” added Mix.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.