Curtis Thompson, an education assistant for the Cumberland Valley School District in Pennsylvania, felt that his union no longer had his best interest at heart, so he asked his employer to stop deducting union dues from his paycheck. But his union, AFSCME, District Council 89, refused to honor his request to resign. Curtis took to the internet and found the Fairness Center. On Curtis’s behalf, we filed a lawsuit against AFSCME, District Council 89 and the Cumberland Valley School District to protect his First Amendment rights.

When Wayne Wong, a train operator in New York with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), wanted to resign his membership in the Transport Workers Union, Local 100 (TWU), union officials seemed to be doing their best to make it as difficult as possible. Wayne complied with every request TWU officials made of him, but they still refused to acknowledge his resignation and stop dues deductions. With the help of the Fairness Center, Wayne filed a federal lawsuit to force the union to acknowledge his resignation. Wayne’s lawsuit caused the TWU to acknowledge that he was no longer a union member and to refund all dues, with interest, that were taken from him since the date of his initial resignation.

Ashley Kjarbo, a New York IRS employee, was facing financial difficulty and wanted to stop paying monthly union dues. So, she filled out a form to resign her membership in the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). But union officials did everything they could to thwart her. First, NTEU officials ignored her. Then, officials demanded that she convince the local union president to approve and sign her resignation form. When Ashley persisted, the union escalated its efforts to keep her locked in.

New Haven Fire Fighters Local 825 voted to leave a statewide union that they believed didn’t represent their interests But state union officials with the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association (UPFFA) refused to acknowledge their disaffiliation and did kept charging union dues to the local. After the Fairness Center filed a lawsuit on their behalf, Local 825 accomplished their goals and owed the state union nothing.

After a DEI-style “Identity & Privilege” training, Hartford teacher John Grande expressed disagreement with its message, and school district officials disciplined him because his opinion didn’t align with theirs. The Hartford Federation of Teachers refused to properly represent John in fighting the district’s discipline because he wasn’t a union member. In Grande v. Hartford Federation of Teachers, John won an unfair labor practice charge against the Hartford Federation of Teachers: For the first time, Connecticut acknowledged that union nonmembers must be treated equally to members when it comes to arbitration. But John’s victory didn’t undo his mistreatment by school district officials.

Fairness Center president Nathan McGrath writes for @WSJopinion: "Former New York City tow-truck driver Ed Seabron knew he had ruffled some feathers when, in 2021, he resigned from New York City’s largest municipal union and spoke to colleagues about alternate union representation. "But he was floored when he saw an online picture of himself, an African-American, shaking hands with someone dressed in the purple robes and blood drop cross insignia of a Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard. "Marvin Robbins, the first vice president of District Council 37 Local 983, who is also African-American, had posted the image on the union’s Facebook page, where hundreds of Mr. Seabron’s colleagues could see it. Though it was an obvious fake, Mr. Seabron believed the message was all too real: challenge union orthodoxy and get branded a race traitor."

When John Kabler walked into a mandatory orientation session when he first started his new job as a liquor store clerk in Pennsylvania, he didn’t know he would be led to believe he had no option but to join a union. At the orientation session, United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1776 officials told him that he had to join the union to keep his job. John joined the union, thinking he had no choice.

When Ray began working at the Long Island Rail Road, union membership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 589 (IBEW) was mandatory, according to their contract. Under the 70-year-old contract between the railroad and the union, all employees had to join and remain in the union—or face consequences. In 2021, a video surfaced that showed IBEW officials in an unfavorable light, and they wrongfully accused Ray of widely distributing it. Feeling alienated, Ray tried to resign his union membership. But union officials refused to acknowledge his resignation. That’s when Ray contacted the Fairness Center for help. After we got involved, the union seemingly backed down and allowed Ray to leave the union. But there was more to come.

Mark Kiddo and his Erie Water Works colleagues felt betrayed after learning AFSCME officials deliberately misled them. Union officials had just presented Mark and his colleagues, who were union members, with a four-year contract that the employees weren’t happy with. It included lower salary increases than they expected and kept in place a defined-benefit pension plan favored by union officials. Union officials deceptively told them it was the only offer on the table. Reluctantly, and believing they had no choice, the employees ratified the contract.