Rorabaugh v. SEIU, Local 668

CASE SUMMARY

The Fairness Center represents Melanie Rorabaugh, a Commonwealth employee who first resigned from her union, SEIU, Local 668 in January 2020. The union never acknowledged her resignation, which forced Ms. Rorabaugh to resubmit a second resignation letter in June 2020. While Local 668 officials acknowledged her resubmitted resignation, they said they would recognize her as a nonmember only after a ten-day waiting period, and are requiring her to continue paying dues until a union-imposed window to resign in May 2021. Ms. Rorabaugh is an income maintenance casework supervisor for the Department of Human Services, at the Statewide Processing Center in Clearfield County. Although Ms. Rorabaugh decided that she no longer wanted to be a union member or to financially support the union, the Commonwealth and the union continue taking dues from her paycheck. Ms. Rorabaugh brings this lawsuit to vindicate her constitutional rights not to be forced to be associated with or to financially support a union.

After Ms. Rorabaugh filed a federal lawsuit against SEIU, Local 668 and the state officials who continued taking dues for the union, the union acknowledged that Ms. Rorabaugh is no longer a union member and refunded all the dues taken, with interest, back to the date of her first resignation.

Melanie Rorabaugh v. Service Employees International Union, Local 668, et al.

This case was filed in Federal District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Press Resources

January 4, 2021

Court Documents

Complaint
December 30, 2020