Join the Union or Lose Your Job? Clerk Pushes Back and Wins

Kabler v. UFCW, Local 1776

CASE SUMMARY

When John Kabler was hired as a Pennsylvania liquor store clerk, he attended a mandatory orientation session with other new hires. There, United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1776 officials told him that he had to join the union to work there.

In fact, UFCW President Wendell Young, IV sent John a letter stating: “It is a condition of employment with this company that you become a member in good standing with [the union].” The letter also threatened that John would be taken off the work schedule if he did not maintain union membership.

Thinking he had no other choice, John joined UFCW.

Clerk Discovers Union Officials Misled Him


A year later, John found out that none of that was true. Once he learned that union membership could not be a condition of employment, John tried to resign from the UFCW. But the union refused to let him out and enforced a “maintenance of membership” provision in its contract with Pennsylvania that limited resignations to a 15-day window period. This short window only appeared every few years, forcing union members, like John, to remain with the union for long stretches of time. Union officials continued to deduct membership dues from his paycheck.

Employee Wins Freedom Through Litigation


Having exhausted his options, John turned to the Fairness Center. On his behalf, we filed a federal lawsuit in March 2019 challenging the union’s illegal “closed shop” policy and seeking a declaration that the union was wrong to reject his resignation.

In May 2020, the UFCW provided John with the relief he sought in his federal lawsuit, and John voluntarily dismissed the suit. The union returned to John more than $1,700 in dues and interest, and they abandoned the contract provision that trapped John and his colleagues in union membership.

Today, because of John’s litigation, more than 1,500 Pennsylvania liquor store clerks can resign their union memberships, because there is no longer a restriction on resignations in the union’s employment contract with Pennsylvania.

“If I went out and tricked someone into giving me thousands of dollars, I’d be in jail. The union should be held to the same standard of basic decency.” – John Kabler

Kabler v. UFCW, Local 1776 is closed.


Documents

CASE SUMMARY

When John Kabler was hired as a Pennsylvania liquor store clerk, he attended a mandatory orientation session with other new hires. There, United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1776 officials told him that he had to join the union to work there.

In fact, UFCW President Wendell Young, IV sent John a letter stating: “It is a condition of employment with this company that you become a member in good standing with [the union].” The letter also threatened that John would be taken off the work schedule if he did not maintain union membership.

Thinking he had no other choice, John joined UFCW.

Clerk Discovers Union Officials Misled Him


A year later, John found out that none of that was true. Once he learned that union membership could not be a condition of employment, John tried to resign from the UFCW. But the union refused to let him out and enforced a “maintenance of membership” provision in its contract with Pennsylvania that limited resignations to a 15-day window period. This short window only appeared every few years, forcing union members, like John, to remain with the union for long stretches of time. Union officials continued to deduct membership dues from his paycheck.

Employee Wins Freedom Through Litigation


Having exhausted his options, John turned to the Fairness Center. On his behalf, we filed a federal lawsuit in March 2019 challenging the union’s illegal “closed shop” policy and seeking a declaration that the union was wrong to reject his resignation.

In May 2020, the UFCW provided John with the relief he sought in his federal lawsuit, and John voluntarily dismissed the suit. The union returned to John more than $1,700 in dues and interest, and they abandoned the contract provision that trapped John and his colleagues in union membership.

Today, because of John’s litigation, more than 1,500 Pennsylvania liquor store clerks can resign their union memberships, because there is no longer a restriction on resignations in the union’s employment contract with Pennsylvania.

“If I went out and tricked someone into giving me thousands of dollars, I’d be in jail. The union should be held to the same standard of basic decency.” – John Kabler

Kabler v. UFCW, Local 1776 is closed.


Documents

MEDIA

State Workers’s Legal Battle to Quit Union Seen as ‘Throwback to the 1940s’

Washington Free Beacon

Citizens Take on Pennsylvania’s
Public-Sector Unions

National Review

March 21, 2019: “…The treatment of Pennsylvania state worker John Kabler by his union is a vestige of a bygone age. ‘This is, in many ways, sort of a throwback to the 1940s, because closed shop – a requirement that you have to join a union to have a job – … was effectively outlawed in 1947.’”

June 29, 2020: “When Pennsylvania’s public-sector union leaders circulated emails calling on state employees to join protests against stricter U.S. immigration policies, not all of those employees were eager to do so … This arrangement did not sit well with John Kabler … He did not like the idea of paying union dues to support political opinions that were not his own.”

State Workers’s Legal Battle to Quit Union Seen as ‘Throwback to the 1940s’

Washington Free Beacon

March 21, 2019: “…The treatment of Pennsylvania state worker John Kabler by his union is a vestige of a bygone age. ‘This is, in many ways, sort of a throwback to the 1940s, because closed shop – a requirement that you have to join a union to have a job – … was effectively outlawed in 1947.’”

Citizens Take on Pennsylvania’s Public-Sector Unions

National Review

June 29, 2020: “When Pennsylvania’s public-sector union leaders circulated emails calling on state employees to join protests against stricter U.S. immigration policies, not all of those employees were eager to do so … This arrangement did not sit well with John Kabler … He did not like the idea of paying union dues to support political opinions that were not his own.”

See more cases like John’s
“I felt as if I were [the Fairness Center’s] only client. Their dedication to me was reflected by their prompt and constant communication. I never had unanswered questions or wondered what was going on. I most appreciate the fact that the results the Fairness Center achieved for me will benefit not just my co-workers, but all current and future Pennsylvania workers.”
– John Kabler, Liquor Store Clerk

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