Still Extorting Dues From Members Who Have Quit

Big Labor-Dominated Bureaucrats Enforce ‘Unconstitutional’ Scheme

When the militant union bosses who run the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU/ AFT/AFL-CIO) ordered rank-and-file educators to go on strike last fall, many didn’t want to walk out on their students.

Roughly 400 actually dared to defy CTU and other Big Labor kingpins and continue doing their jobs, to the extent they could, during the strike, according to a contemporaneous report by NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern.

Among the Windy City teachers and other education professionals who stayed on the job were Ifeoma Nkemdi, who teaches second graders at Newberry Math and Science Academy, and Joanne Troesch, a technology coordinator at Jones College Prep.

‘[W]e Should Be Careful of Teaching [Schoolchildren] to Go to War With One Another’

Ms. Nkemdi and Ms. Troesch could not in good conscience support a strike that they believed, with ample cause, would hurt schoolchildren who already lack a number of amenities enjoyed by most of their counterparts across America.

They also believed the strike sent the wrong message to children about how to achieve their goals. As Ms. Nkemdi explained to CBS Chicago, “[W]e should be careful of teaching them to go to war with one another.”

But the two educators knew that CTU bosses were threatening to impose stiff penalties, potentially including multi-thousand-dollar fines, if they returned to work.

Before exercising their right to disobey union-boss strike orders, both investigated how they could work without being penalized by a union that they had joined only under duress.

Right to Work’s 2018 High Court Victory in Janus Unchained Civil Servants

In the course of their research, Ms. Nkemdi and Ms. Troesch each independently discovered, to her relief, that by formally resigning from the union public employees can strip Big Labor bosses of any legal power to penalize them for working during a strike to which they are opposed.

And they were surprised and happy to learn as well that union nonmembers, contrary to the impression CTU bosses and school officials had given them, have a constitutional right to work for taxpayers without being forced to pay any dues or fees to an unwanted union.

National Right to Work Committee Vice President Matt Leen explained:

“Two years ago, in Janus v. AFSCME, the U.S. Supreme Court definitively ruled that deals between Big Labor officials and employers making payment of forced dues or fees to a union a condition of public employment violate the First Amendment.

“The landmark Janus precedent was argued and won on behalf of then-Illinois civil servant Mark Janus by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation Staff Attorney Bill Messenger.

“Once they learned about Janus for the first time last fall, Ifeoma Nkemdi and Joanne Troesch promptly sent letters to CTU officials expressing their intent to exercise their Janus rights by resigning from the union and completely cutting off the deduction of union dues from their paychecks.

“Unfortunately, despite the Supreme Court’s crystal-clear admonition that the deduction of union dues or fees from public employee paychecks without their ‘clear and affirmative’ consent is unconstitutional, neither Ms. Nkemdi nor Ms. Troesch has yet been able to exercise her right to stop bankrolling the CTU.

National Right to Work Committee Vice President Matt Leen explained:

“Two years ago, in Janus v. AFSCME, the U.S. Supreme Court definitively ruled that deals between Big Labor officials and employers making payment of forced dues or fees to a union a condition of public employment violate the First Amendment.

“The landmark Janus precedent was argued and won on behalf of then-Illinois civil servant Mark Janus by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation Staff Attorney Bill Messenger.

“Once they learned about Janus for the first time last fall, Ifeoma Nkemdi and Joanne Troesch promptly sent letters to CTU officials expressing their intent to exercise their Janus rights by resigning from the union and completely cutting off the deduction of union dues from their paychecks.

“Unfortunately, despite the Supreme Court’s crystal-clear admonition that the deduction of union dues or fees from public employee paychecks without their ‘clear and affirmative’ consent is unconstitutional, neither Ms. Nkemdi nor Ms. Troesch has yet been able to exercise her right to stop bankrolling the CTU.

Monopoly-Bargaining Repeal Needed For Full Protection Of Freedom of Speech

Mr. Leen continued:

“Incredibly, union bosses and Chicago school officials are daring to suggest that so-called ‘check-off’ cards signed by Ms. Nkemdi, Ms. Troesch, and many other educators when they were unaware they had a constitutional right not to support the union hierarchy financially constitute ‘clear and affirmative’ consent.

“And union chiefs and the bureaucrats whom they have in their pockets claim that teachers can only withdraw their supposed ‘consent’ for being bilked by the CTU during a brief annual ‘escape period’ created by the union itself.

“Thanks to independent-minded civil servants like Ms. Nkemdi and Ms. Troesch, and Foundation attorneys, ‘escape periods’ may eventually be overturned in court. But full protection for civil servants’ freedom of speech will require liberating them from all union monopoly-bargaining control.”