Nate McBride, a water treatment plant operator from Everett, Wash., just wants to serve the community without funding his union’s radical politics.

And under the Constitution, the right to resign his membership and stop paying dues isn’t supposed to be controversial.

Unfortunately, the Washington State Council of County and City Employees AFSCME Council 2 Local 113 (Council 2) saw the situation differently, prompting McBride to file an unfair labor practices complaint with the state’s Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC) — which earlier this month found McBride’s allegations sufficient to demonstrate Council 2 violated McBride’s rights,  and Council 2 must now answer the allegations.

This also means PERC may have to hold a hearing where both Freedom Foundation attorneys and the union will present evidence and argue their respective cases, putting Council 2 officials in the awkward position of having explain why they played games with McBride for months instead of just honoring his right under Washington law to decline union membership and dues.

The disagreement began when the union declined McBride’s opt-out request because he and two co-workers had all resigned using only one email address.

Even worse, Council 2 Executive Director Michael Rainey gave McBride the wrong mailing address where he could send his opt-out form and said nothing about any restrictions on his right to opt out of paying dues.

Adding insult to injury, after his second attempt to opt out, the union informed McBride his request would only be considered during a two-week annual window, then neglected to tell define when this arbitrary period started or stopped.

This left McBride on his own to decipher the ambiguous language in the membership card he signed years ago stipulating that his window occurred no less than 30 and no more than 45 days before the “annual anniversary date” of the membership card.

This could be calculated from the date he signed the card or the date the union stamped the document as having been received by the union.

The union then delayed in responding to one of his opt-out requests until after the earlier of the potential window periods had opened and closed.

Finally, when the local union president, Jesse Parks, told McBride how to calculate his opt-out window (based on the date the union received the card) and McBride calculated that he had, in fact, successfully opted out during this window, the union moved the goal posts yet again and picked a different opt-out window that better served its own narrow interests.

Unions hate when employees stand up for themselves, but the runaround Council 2 gave McBride is stunning even by union standards. Union leaders played keep-away for months until McBride finally got fed up and contacted the Freedom Foundation.

The group’s attorneys responded by firing off a letter demanding Council 2 authorize the city to cease deducting union dues from his wages — which only the union has a right to do according to the collective bargaining agreement.

Instead of doing the right thing, however, Council 2 dug in its heels and continued to deny McBride’s repeated requests to stop paying dues. The union insisted he missed his window to opt out, denied the local president told McBride the window was calculated based on the “received-by” stamped date, and claimed McBride must opt out yet again … next summer.

This was the final straw. Assisted by Freedom Foundation attorneys, McBride filed an unfair labor practice (ULP) complaint with PERC against Council 2 in January.

The action alleges the union violated his right under Washington law to refrain from union activity by opting out of dues payments and by placing burdensome barriers to opting out that serve no purpose other than to keep employees’ money flowing into Council 2’s coffers.

But one of the most difficult hurdles at PERC an employee must get over is the first: PERC must determine whether the employee adequately alleges a ULP against the union.

This is no small hurdle to surmount, since PERC has stymied ULPs filed by Freedom Foundation attorneys at this stage before.

When an employee first files an allegation with PERC, it is not a given PERC will require a union to respond to the allegations at all.  But this is what PERC has done.

PERC has taken this first step to send the message to unions that it won’t ignore union gamesmanship when it comes to protecting the rights of Washington’s public employees. PERC will continue to have the opportunity to tell unions it will not tolerate unions unfairly treating employees. Nate McBride deserves better from Council 2, and all Washington’s public employees deserve better from unions that play games with their rights.

This could get interesting. Stay tuned.