A labor union which represents home personal care assistants for those with disabilities paid through Illinois state financial assistance has been hit with a class action lawsuit, claiming the union illegally slow-walked requests from those wishing to stop the union from deducting dues from their paychecks.
On May 20, attorneys from the firm of Morris & De La Rosa, of Chicago, along with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, filed suit in Chicago federal court against SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Indiana. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of named plaintiff Hydie Nance, of Randolph County in southern Illinois.
The plaintiffs have asked the court to allow them to expand the action to include a class of additional plaintiff, including all personal assistants who have had dues deducted from their checks, even after submitting written requests to SEIU to resign their union membership and stop the dues deductions.
The lawsuit specifically accuses SEIU Healthcare of making those union members who wish to leave the union submit additional paperwork, not otherwise required under the terms of any contract, to stop the dues. The lawsuit asserts this allows the union to continue collecting dues from members who wish to stop payments. That would be a violation of members’ constitutional rights, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit relies on the U.S. Supreme Court decisions, a 2014 ruling known as Harris v Quinn and a 2018 decision known as Janus v American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. In those decisions, the high court specifically ruled the state of Illinois and labor unions violated the speech and association rights of those considered union members by forcing them to pay fees or dues when they do not wish to do so.
In Harris, the Supreme Court specifically prohibited the state and union from deducting dues from the state assistance checks paid to personal assistants who were unionized by a state law, despite not being state employees.
According to the complaint, Nance is a personal assistant who sought to resign her membership in SEIU Healthcare.
The complaint said she submitted a written request to the union to resign her membership and demanded the union cease collecting dues from the checks she received from the state of Illinois.
However, the union did not immediately did so, as the Supreme Court decisions should have required, according to the plaintiffs.
Rather, the union then required her to resubmit her request, with a copy of her photo identification.
The complaint noted the union did not require anyone to submit a photo ID to join the union, nor had the union or Illinois Department of Human Services ever informed personal assistants of the need to provide a photo ID to resign their membership and stop the collection of dues.
“SEIU-HCII’s and DHS’s policy and practice of refusing to stop dues deductions unless and until a personal assistant submits a copy of photo identification impedes and burdens personal assistants’ First Amendment right to stop subsidizing SEIU-HCII and its speech,” the plaintiffs said. “It also impinges on personal assistants’ right to privacy and exposes them to the threat of identity theft.”
According to the complaint, the delay in processing her resignation and stop payment request resulted in the union collecting dues from an additional check received by Nance.
The plaintiffs have asked the court to declare those policies and actions by SEIU Healthcare violated the First and Fourteenth amendments and federal law. They also have requested an order barring the union from continuing to collect the dues after they have been asked, in writing, to stop, “irrespective of the form of that written notice or whether it includes a photo identification.”
They also have asked the court to order the union to pay unspecified compensatory damages, and attorney fees.