FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 11, 2020
MEDIA CONTACT:
Katie Fulkerson, 812-369-1751
Minneapolis, MN – Minnesota state employees filed two class action lawsuits seeking a refund for $19 million in union fees illegally confiscated from their paychecks by AFSCME Council 5 and Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE). The two lawsuits, Brown et al. v. AFSCME Council 5 and Fellows et al. v. MAPE were filed Friday by the Upper Midwest Law Center, Liberty Justice Center, and National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the practice of collecting mandatory union fees from government employees as a condition of employment in the Janus v. AFSCME decision. Now, government employees are free to work without paying fees to a union they do not support.
Doug Seaton of the Upper Midwest Law Center said, “The Upper Midwest Law Center is proud to be joining LJC again in these cases to fight for Minnesota public employees’ right to say no to supporting government unions, a right established under the Janus decision. The UMLC has successfully represented public employees in several similar cases, and looks forward to winning these and other Janus-related cases we have underway and in planning. Public employees can’t be held against their will and have their pay taken any longer by government unions.”
“Today, Minnesota’s state employees are standing up against two of the state’s most powerful unions to demand their money back,” explained Catrin Wigfall, policy fellow at Center of the American Experiment specializing in labor policy. “Ever since Janus was decided, Center of the American Experiment has been helping Minnesotans like these fight for their rights to keep their whole paychecks. It’s exciting to see the Janus case being enforced.”
###
