School plumber says union forced him to pay dues, contrary to Supreme Court ruling • New Jersey Monitor

A Mercer County plumber is suing the Hamilton School District and a plumbers' union, claiming they forced him to pay union dues in violation of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits mandatory dues for public sector workers.

In a brief filed Thursday, Nicolo Giangrasso claims he tried to resign from the union and stop paying his dues after learning of the Supreme Court's decision in Janus v. AFSCME, but the union told him that paying those dues was a condition of employment.

“I was told I had to join the union and pay dues to keep my government job. And now that I've learned of my right to quit, the union is still trying to take my money by playing word games with 'dues' and 'dues,'” Giangrasso said in a statement. “What they're doing is illegal.”

In Janus, the Supreme Court ruled that public employers may not compel employees who are not members of a union to pay union dues because such a requirement would violate the First Amendment's protection of free speech.

In the lawsuit filed on Giangrasso's behalf by the conservative Liberty Justice Center, Giangrasso accuses the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada Local 9 of charging the union not membership dues but a levy imposed as a condition of his employment.

“Government employees have a First Amendment right to choose whether to use their money to support public employee unions — and whatever the union may claim, employees do not lose their constitutional rights simply because a union relabels the money as 'contributions' instead of 'membership dues,'” said Jeffrey Schwab, senior staff attorney at the Liberty Justice Center.

The Liberty Justice Center represented the plaintiff in the case before the Supreme Court.

Before Janus, federal law permitted public sector unions to collect dues from non-members because the unions continued to negotiate on their behalf in collective bargaining.

Michael Tranberg, the union's executive director, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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