A national group that advocates for so-called “right to work” policies is threatening to sue Ohio if it doesn’t stop collecting dues from state workers who are not union members, following last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision on the issue. The state’s largest public employee union says the threat is unnecessary – and went to the wrong agency anyway.
The letter from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation demanding a halt to mandatory “shop fees” being deducted from non-union members’ paychecks went to state Treasurer Josh Mandel.
But Chris Mabe with the Ohio Civil Service Employees Union says the treasurer’s office doesn’t handle that. And he says the OCSEA had already sent its own letter to the state after the Janus decision.
“When the Supreme Court – for lack of a better term – slapped the gavel, we were already putting in process to abide by the law here,” he said.
He estimates around 900 workers or about 3% of the OCSEA’s 30,000 members will no longer have what he calls fair share payments deducted from their checks.
Mabe says the lawsuit threat came from a D.C.-based group, not from disgruntled state workers.
