Dover, Del. (June 29, 2004) — Three employees of Delaware State University (DSU) today filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against local and statewide union officials, as well as top DSU executives, for violating their constitutional rights by deducting compulsory union dues from the paychecks of nonunion employees.

The DSU technical facilities employees, receiving free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys, charge that American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Union Locals 1007 and 1267, and statewide Council 81 officials, collected compulsory dues without properly disclosing the unions’ expenditures, as required under Supreme Court precedent applying the First Amendment.

The workers also charge DSU President Dr. Allen Sessoms and Vice President Ron Parr, who are ultimately responsible for overseeing the proper implementation of monopoly bargaining agreements affecting University employees, for allowing the unlawful deductions.

James Perry, Randy Hodges, and recently awarded Employee of the Year Mike Hudson, filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. The workers allege that AFSCME union officials intentionally seized the forced union dues without first providing the independently audited financial disclosure required by a long-standing U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson, a case argued and won by Foundation attorneys, established that under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, employees have due process rights to ensure they are not forced to pay for ideological and other non-collective bargaining activities they may oppose.

Perry, Johnson, and Hodges are asking the court to enjoin AFSCME union and DSU officials from collecting forced dues from any Delaware nonunion public employee until they provide an audited accounting as to how compulsory union dues are spent, along with the other required procedures that protect the First Amendment rights of nonmembers.

In addition, the workers seek class-action status for their case, as well as restitution for all Delaware public employees who pay “agency fees” to the AFSCME union of fees spent on non-bargaining activities since June 2002. If the court grants class-action status, a remedy in the case could force significant financial reimbursements to all past, present, and future nonunion Delaware public employees who were unlawfully forced to pay union fees — a number believed to exceed 100.

“Union officials simply want employees to shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “Unfortunately, without the protections of a Right to Work law, Delaware state employees can be forced to pay certain compulsory union dues or risk losing their jobs. However, they do have due process rights.”

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 more than 250 cases nationwide per year.