Clair Ricker (not her real name) is a social services worker for the state of Oregon whom Service Employees International Union Local 503 (SEIU) forced to pay union dues without consent.
She submitted her opt-out letter Sept. 23, 2021, but SEIU did not respond until Dec. 19, 2022, at which point it promised to end dues deductions.
SEIU broke even this delayed promise continuing to deduct dues from Ricker’s paycheck.
That’s when Ricker reached out to the Freedom Foundation for help, because she clearly could see only a lawyer’s help could get SEIU to stop.
Rebekah Schultheiss, the Freedom Foundation’s Oregon attorney, sent a demand letter insisting SEIU immediately release Ricker from membership, stop taking her dues deductions, and refund all dues taken without authorization.
The union ended up refunding a total of $1,239.26.
Unfortunately, Ricker’s experience with SEIU 503 is not unique. The union has a history of disregarding public employees’ rights to further its financial and political interests.
Its contempt has also become evident in cases involving an employee’s religious-based opt-out rights. In one such case, the Freedom Foundation sought and obtained a refund of $534.
In another, the union assured a public employee his request to opt-out in 2018 was timely because it fell within the designated opt-out window, yet the union continued to deduct dues for nearly two years until the Freedom Foundation stepped in to secure a refund.
Similarly, an employee who resigned from SEIU in March 2023, with the union promising to stop deductions by September, found deductions continuing that month. With assistance from Freedom Foundation, this employee eventually received a refund.
Other situations are even more perplexing: An employee never even joined SEIU upon starting a new job in early 2023, yet the union initiated deductions from their paycheck.
The employee sent an opt-out letter in August 2023 but received no response. Then the deductions ended in November 2023 without explanation, or returning the unlawful union dues deductions.
The Freedom Foundation helped secure a refund of $588 because SEIU should not have taken a single cent of her paycheck.
The Freedom Foundation’s legal department deals with cases like the ones mentioned above on a regular basis. Schultheiss noted, “These are not isolated examples of employees whose written requests to end membership SEIU has ignored, discarded or inexplicably ‘never received.’ This is an issue that is long-standing and recuring.”
Clair Ricker and employees in similar situations keep the Freedom Foundation’s legal department busy holding unions accountable and recovering funds wrongfully taken from public employees.
