Nguyen v. A&R Local 4200

The Fairness Center represents Phuong Kim Nguyen and Van Nguyen (no relation), who are Fiscal Administrative Officers for the State of Connecticut. In 2015, shortly after beginning their employment with the State, they joined the union that exclusively represents their bargaining unit, the Administrative and Residual Employees Union, Local 4200 (“Local 4200”). But in 2018, when they resigned from the union, they were told that the membership forms they had signed the year before locked them into paying union dues indefinitely, even after resigning their union membership, unless they revoked their dues deductions authorizations during a specified escape window that only occurred once a year. Yet Phuong Kim and Van signed the membership forms only after the union told them—at a holiday party—that the forms were needed to update their contact information.

Public employees who are not members of a union cannot be forced to pay the union money unless they make a knowing and voluntary waiver of their right not to pay, which the Supreme Court recognized in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, 138 S. Ct. 2448 (2018). Because plaintiffs belief that they made no such waiver of their constitutional rights, they bring this lawsuit to establish that the Supreme Court meant what it said in Janus: employees must “clearly and affirmatively consent before any money is taken from them.” Id. at 2486.