The Buckeye Institute filed an appeal on Tuesday against a State Employment Relations Board (SERB) decision in the case of Littlejohn v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The appeal, submitted to the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, requests the court to instruct the government and its unions to cease deducting money from employees' paychecks after they have resigned from the union.
“The government union claims that Ms. Littlejohn signed a contract authorizing the union to keep deducting membership dues from her paycheck even after she quit the union,” stated Jay R. Carson, senior litigator at The Buckeye Institute and attorney for Ms. Littlejohn. “Ohio law simply does not allow this unethical sleight-of-hand, and it is time for the courts to tell the unions and the government to stop illegally taking money from workers’ paychecks.”
In similar cases such as Darling v. AFSCME, government unions have argued—and courts have concurred—that these types of wage disputes fall under SERB's jurisdiction. The Buckeye Institute disputes this interpretation. Necole Littlejohn voluntarily filed her complaint with SERB, which subsequently dismissed it without addressing contractual issues. This question of jurisdiction has been appealed by The Buckeye Institute to the Ohio Supreme Court.
In June 2022, Necole Littlejohn, a hospital employee with the city of Cincinnati, informed her employer and AFSCME Ohio Council 8 of AFL-CIO that she was resigning from the union. Despite accepting her resignation, AFSCME has continued deducting dues from her paycheck.
For more information on Littlejohn v. AFSCME, visit BuckeyeInstitute.org/LittlejohnvAFSCME.