Can not be forced to pay Union Dues...

[Stan]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A federal judge in Columbus says a union employee can't be forced to pay dues if their religious beliefs conflict with their union's political positions.

The ruling broadens the category of employees who may opt out of unions because of religious beliefs beyond Seventh-day Adventists and Mennonites.

The judge decided state law discriminated against other religions by recognizing the Seventh-day Adventist and Mennonite objections to joining unions.

A teacher in Saint Marys in western Ohio had sued the State Employment Relations Board because she objected to paying dues to the National Education Association. The woman, who is Roman Catholic, says the union supports abortion rights and she does not.

Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com

SOURCE http://www.wdtn.com/Global/story.asp?S=6709221

[Dr. Shane]

There needs to be quite a few reforms in unions if they are going to continue. Even now, most unions only exist for government employees. That is a shame because unions can contribute to the business and industrial communities by providing skill labor while serving their own members by finding them jobs at a livable wage.

The problem too often is that the unions get involved in politics and self-preservation at the cost of both their members and the business communities they are involved with. So the business communities end up working directly with the employees and dumping the union. Great in the short term but in the long-term, the skilled labor the unions provided eventually dry up.

[olger]

Almost everyone in St. Marys is Catholic, I've worked for some of them.

Personally I like the ruling, because of the opinions I have gathered of the UAW while doing work for GM. Exceedingly lazy people abound, at least at the Indianapolis plant that we worked at.

[Amelia]

27-June-2007 -- Catholic News Agency

Victory for Catholic Teacher Told to Pay Dues or Change Religions

Washington DC, Jun 27, 2007 (CNA).- A U.S. District Court judge struck down an Ohio law that allowed only those public employees who belong to certain religious denominations the right to claim a religious objection to paying union dues.

The legal challenge was mounted by a teacher in southern Ohio, Carol Katter, who said a union official told her to pay dues or change religions.

"It's wonderful, just wonderful," the math and language arts instructor told Cybercast News Service on Friday, after Judge Gregory Frost issued his decision.

Front struck down Ohio Revised Code section 4117.09© as a violation of Katter’s First Amendment rights. He also permanently enjoined the State Employment Relations Board from further enforcing that law.

The law in question stated that any public employee, who was a member of a "bona fide religion or religious body which has historically held conscientious objections to joining or financially supporting an employee organization ... shall not be required to join or financially support any employee organization."

Katter, a lifelong Catholic, had always declined membership in the Ohio Education Association, a state chapter of the National Education Association, because of its position in favor of abortion.

But dues became mandatory last year. When she spoke to the union attorney, she was told her she had two choices - pay her dues or "change religions."

She soon learned that members of the Seventh-day Adventist and Mennonite churches received an exemption, due to their denominations' history of objection to union membership. The exemption was not extended to Catholics.

With free legal assistance from the nonprofit National Right to Work Foundation (NRWF), she filed a federal complaint in the U.S. District Court in Columbus last January. Katter also filed a related charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Stefan Gleason, the NRWF's vice president, praised the judge's ruling as "a victory for employee rights and the freedom of conscience."

Gleason noted that Frost's ruling follows another federal court decision last fall, which affirmed that all public-sector employees who have sincere religious objections to union affiliation cannot be forced to associate with and pay dues to a union they find objectionable.

"While the ruling expands the rights available to employees of faith, abuses of forced unionism will inevitably continue until Ohio passes a Right to Work law making union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary," he told Cybercast News.