Former Union Vice President Fights for Right to Resign Membership
Welch v. Civil Service Employees Association, Local 1000
Case Summary
- Amber Welch joined the Civil Service Employees Association, Local 1000 (CSEA) when she started her job with the city of Syracuse in 2011. The union touted values of “full participation,” “open communication,” and “accountability,” but, in her view, failed to live up to them.
- Amber took a leadership position within the union to secure change, but was only thwarted by other members of leadership. Then they prevented her from resigning her membership.
Amber joins union leadership to uphold its values
Amber is a self-proclaimed problem solver, so when she noticed these issues with her union, she decided to join the leadership team. She applied for and was approved as the union vice president, hoping to be able to address the issues that were being ignored. But her hopes didn’t last long. Her fellow union officials soon started withholding information from her and even holding meetings without her.
CSEA vice president seeks to resign union membership
Refusing to continue to associate with an organization that doesn’t live by its values, Amber decided to resign her union membership. But even as a union vice president, she had great difficulty finding the information she needed to resign.
She eventually submitted a resignation letter, but the only response she received stated that she hadn’t provided the required information and that, if she resigned, the union would not represent her in any “disciplinary matters or during any ‘interrogation’ or meeting.”
(Amber Welch. Photo credit: The Fairness Center.)
Amber refuses to take ‘no’ for an answer
Unfazed, Amber re-sent her resignation, this time receiving no response at all, while the union continued to take dues from her paycheck.
That’s when she sought legal help and found the Fairness Center. We assisted Amber in filing a federal lawsuit to assert her First Amendment right to choose not to associate with the union and not to pay dues.
Amber’s lawsuit forced the union to acknowledge that she was no longer a union member and to refund her union dues from the time she initially resigned from the union.
“Though I left my position entirely, I hope that my former colleagues can find a way to return the union to its values – without the need for litigation…The union has plenty of room to improve.”
Case Status & Documents
- Complaint
June 17, 2021 - News Release
June 22, 2021
Welch v. Civil Service Employees Association, Local 1000 is closed.
Media
Community Service Officer Sues New York Municipality, Union Over Efforts to Resign
News | Washington Examiner
June 15, 2021: “A Syracuse community service officer has filed a suit against the city and a labor union over its assertion that she must still be represented by the organization even after she resigned from it nearly a year ago.”
Syracuse Community Service Officer Files Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Against Her Union
News Release | The Fairness Center
June 22, 2021: “Public employees have the right not to be union members if they so choose. At least, they’re supposed to. But it took multiple resignation attempts before Amber Welch, a Syracuse Community Service Officer, eventually got out of her union.”
Opinion: New York Union Officials Should Live Up to Their Stated Values
Op-Ed | The Fairness Center
“When I see a problem, I don’t wait for someone else to work it out. I jump in and try to solve it. I think that’s what people appreciated about me in my 10 years of serving Syracuse as a community service officer. Whether they were in trouble or just looking for information, people turned to me to help them find the law enforcement resources they needed. Solving people’s problems brought me satisfaction every day. And it’s the same attitude I brought to the union, the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), that came along with city employment.”