Teamsters officials forced to return every dollar, plus interest, of fees seized by the union from the court workers
Minneapolis, MN (September 10, 2018) – A federal First Amendment lawsuit brought by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys for two Minnesota court employees against a Teamsters local union has ended with the workers winning a settlement that will return to the workers all forced union dues seized by union officials. The refund is a result of the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court Janus v. AFSCME decision, which held that the First Amendment prohibits mandatory union fees for public sector workers.
Carrie Keller and Elizabeth Zeien, employees of the State of Minnesota Court System, filed the lawsuit after Teamsters Local 320 union officials and Minnesota state officials forced them into union ranks without a vote and against their desire.
Plus Pension News
Craig Johnson, Teamsters Local 320 BA tries to take credit for protecting our Pension last year! Everyone who's been following this blog knows Brian Aldes, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 320 "signed off" on CUTS to the PERA Correctional Plan. Only after this author and MNPEA went to bat was our 2.5% COLA maintained. Had Johnson and Aldes had their way it would have been only 1.4% this year.
The following letter from Craig Johnson of Teamsters Local 320 was shared with me by our Ramsey County CO readers of this blog. Note the last sentence; "...we worked on the Omnibus Pension Bill to secure PERA remains strong...."
They had agreed to cap our pension at 1.5%! They and AFSCME called it shared sacrifice. Sorry Craig, we don't don't need that kind of "work" on our pension.