The Union Antisemitism Monitor
News and opinion about allegations of antisemitic discrimination and anti-Israel activism within unions.
Note: The content of this page does not solely reflect lawsuits filed by clients of the Fairness Center, and the opinions expressed in linked articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the Fairness Center.
Featured
‘Serious concern’ about Jew-hatred in largest US labor union, Senate panel finds
Jerusalem News Syndicate
“There is a ‘distinct and serious concern’ about how the National Education Association, the largest U.S. labor union, treats its Jewish members, according to a report that the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions released on Wednesday.”
Alarming levels of K-12 antisemitism demand responses
The Focus Project
“While campus protests following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 have largely abated, antisemitic incidents at K-12 schools continue to fester at an alarming rate—up 400% compared to 2020, according to a recent ADL report.”
As the Academic Year Starts, Antisemitism Comes to K-12 Schools in Addition to Universities
The Algemeiner
“Two leading Jewish civil rights groups stepped up after Jewish teachers reported antisemitic harassment last year at the National Education Association’s annual convention, only to devolve into disagreement ahead of this year’s convention.”
New ADL Report Finds Widespread Antisemitism in U.S. Teachers Unions
Anti-Defamation League
“70 percent of respondents somewhat or strongly agreed that vocalizing concerns about the treatment of Jews in union spaces could lead to reputational or professional consequences. Nearly three quarters (73.6 percent) said they feel a need to self-censor in teachers union spaces.”
United Academic Workers
City Journal
“Walter Reuther’s UAW bargained over wages, pensions, and health insurance, and treated politics as the means of securing them. Its fastest-growing wing has reversed the order of priorities. The union contract is now an instrument of politics, and the university a site of struggle rather than a workplace.”
My Teacher Union Ejected Me from a Meeting for Being a Zionist
Jewish Journal
“For more than 30 minutes, approximately 160 delegates took turns denouncing me by name for being a Zionist, and calling Zionism racism. More than a dozen voices claimed they felt threatened by me, specifically for my ‘racist Zionist ways.’ When they were finished, they voted to remove me.”
When teachers’ unions abandon Jewish teachers
Armstrong Williams
“This is how institutional prejudice takes root. It does not always begin with an official declaration of hatred. It grows through selective enforcement, ideological intimidation and leaders who decide that acknowledging one group’s pain would be politically inconvenient.”
NEA and AFT Partner Joins DSA to Teach ‘Weaponizing Antisemitism’
North American Values Institute K-12 Extremism Tracker
“A Philadelphia ‘Socialist Night School” on “Weaponizing Antisemitism’ highlights overlapping ties between Rethinking Schools, CODEPINK, the DSA and activist educators in Philadelphia public schools.”
News of Union Antisemitism
News
Opinion
Our Clients
Israeli UC Berkeley Postdoc Sues Union for ‘Antisemitic’ Discrimination
Yaniv v. UAW 4811
Karin Yaniv, an Israeli postdoc at UC Berkeley, alleges that her campus union has created an atmosphere of pervasive hostility and relentless abuse targeting Israeli Jews it represents. Her civil rights lawsuit seeks to end the union’s antisemitic discrimination against her and to hold union officials accountable for the hostile work environment they have fostered on campus.
Professors Seek Freedom from ‘Antisemitic’ Union’s Representation
Goldstein v. PSC/CUNY
Avraham Goldstein and five other City University of New York professors were outraged when their union issued a resolution they viewed as “anti-Israel” and “antisemitic.” Though these professors are no longer union members, New York law forces them to still accept the union’s representation.
Client Question & Answer With CUNY Professor Frimette Kass-Shraibman
Goldstein v. PSC/CUNY
Frimette Kass-Shraibman is an accounting professor at the City University of New York. She is also a Zionist Jew and was one of the six professors who sued their faculty union in Goldstein v. PSC/CUNY. The Fairness Center interviewed Frimette about her lawsuit and the antisemitism she has faced on CUNY campuses. Read her Q&A here.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you are a public employee who is not a union member, you have a constitutional right not to pay fees to a union, according to the Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME decision in 2018.
Some courts have said that employees who were union members but who later resigned from the union had to continue paying union dues for a period of time in some circumstances. One example is if the employee had signed a membership card or application containing certain language.
We have successfully represented clients who were told they had to pay the union when they did not want to. However, the facts and circumstances of each situation vary, and our ability to offer representation may depend on the relevant legal jurisdiction.
NOTE: If you have questions about this topic, or think you have a legal issue, consider contacting a lawyer. Fairness Center lawyers represent clients for free and can be reached here or at 844.293.1001. We strongly encourage you to pursue with haste any legal claim you believe you may have, as the mere passage of time may prevent you from exercising possible legal claims.
Unions owe a duty of fair representation to all the employees in a bargaining unit they represent, whether they are union members or not. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that the duty is breached when a union’s actions toward an employee it represents are “arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.” Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 190 (1967).
Many jurisdictions follow that standard, but the exact details of what the duty requires may vary by jurisdiction and circumstances. Some states permit unions not to represent nonmembers in “individualized” grievances. Also, some states allow nonmembers to represent themselves in grievances, at least in the first stages.
The Fairness Center has represented clients, like Connecticut teacher John Grande, who alleged that their union violated the duty of fair representation because they were not union members or because union officials misrepresented important information during collective bargaining, as was the case with Pennsylvania employee Mark Kiddo and his colleagues.
NOTE: If you have questions about this topic, or think you have a legal issue, consider contacting a lawyer. Fairness Center lawyers represent clients for free and can be reached here or at 844.293.1001. We strongly encourage you to pursue with haste any legal claim you believe you may have, as the mere passage of time may prevent you from exercising possible legal claims.
Unions owe a duty of fair representation to all the employees in a bargaining unit they represent, whether they are union members or not. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that the duty is breached when a union’s actions toward an employee it represents are “arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.” Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 190 (1967).
Many jurisdictions follow that standard, but the exact details of what the duty requires may vary by jurisdiction and circumstances.
The Fairness Center has represented clients, like Connecticut teacher John Grande, who have alleged that their union violated the duty of fair representation because they were not union members or because union officials misrepresented important information during collective bargaining, as was the case with Pennsylvania employee Mark Kiddo and his colleagues.
NOTE: If you have questions about this topic, or think you have a legal issue, consider contacting a lawyer. Fairness Center lawyers represent clients for free and can be reached here or at 844.293.1001. We strongly encourage you to pursue with haste any legal claim you believe you may have, as the mere passage of time may prevent you from exercising possible legal claims.
The Fairness Center currently offers free legal representation in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Colorado, New Jersey and to federal employees, and may soon be expanding to other areas. The Fairness Center has represented clients involved in disputes with unions, including:
- American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE),
- American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME),
- American Federation of Teachers (AFT),
- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW),
- International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Teamsters),
- Law Enforcement Employees Benevolent Association (LEEBA),
- National Education Association (NEA),
- National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU),
- New York State United Teachers (NYSUT),
- Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association (PSCOA),
- Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA),
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU),
- Transportation Workers Union of America (TWU),
- United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW),
- UNITE Here, and more.
NOTE: If you have questions about this topic, or think you have a legal issue, consider contacting a lawyer. Fairness Center lawyers represent clients for free and can be reached here or at 844.293.1001. We strongly encourage you to pursue with haste any legal claim you believe you may have, as the mere passage of time may prevent you from exercising possible legal claims.
Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful for a “labor organization” to “exclude or to expel from its membership, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual because of his race, color, religion, sex, or national origin . . . .” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(c)(1). Some states have laws with similar provisions as well. The Fairness Center has represented clients who believed that a union had discriminated against them on an unlawful basis.
NOTE: If you have questions about this topic, or think you have a legal issue, consider contacting a lawyer. Fairness Center lawyers represent clients for free and can be reached here or at 844.293.1001. We strongly encourage you to pursue with haste any legal claim you believe you may have, as the mere passage of time may prevent you from exercising possible legal claims.
Other Resources
“The mission of the Israeli-American Council (IAC) is to build an engaged and united Israeli-American community that strengthens the Israeli and Jewish identity of our next generation, the American Jewish community, and the bond between the peoples of the United States and the State of Israel.” Visit IAC.
“S.A.F.E. Campus is a nonprofit and non-partisan grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to combating the systemic exclusion and discrimination faced by Zionist and Jewish students, alumni, and faculty on American college campuses.” Visit S.A.F.E. Campus.
“StandWithUs is an international, non-partisan education organization that supports Israel and fights anti-Semitism. StandWithUs empowers and energizes students and communities with leadership training and educational programs on hundreds of college campuses, high schools, and middle schools.” Visit StandWithUs.