(The Center Square) – An Ohio appeals court will now decide whether a public employees’ union can continue to collect dues from a school custodian.
In one of seven union wage cases brought by The Buckeye Institute, the policy group filed its appeal in the 7th District Court of Appeals on behalf of Matthew Sheldon in his lawsuit against the Ohio Association of Public School Employees.
Sheldon, a custodian in the Carroll Exempted Village School District, said in a January lawsuit that the union continued to withhold union dues from his paycheck after he left the organization.
A lower court dismissed the case.
“The facts of this case are not in dispute,” said Jay R. Carson, senior litigator at The Buckeye Institute and an attorney representing Sheldon. “Mr. Sheldon has ended his membership in the government union. Under Ohio law, this fact ends his ‘membership contract.’
“What is in question is whether the courthouse doors are open to Mr. Sheldon – and other Ohioans – to bring his case and end the union’s illegal wage theft.”
Sheldon has been with the school district for a decade and the union for nearly that long. In December 2023, he decided to quit the union and asked for dues to not be removed from his check.
According to the lawsuit, the union continued to remove dues for four months before stopping in April 2024. The suit says the union resumed removing dues in May 2024.
The appeal argues the lower court erroneously ruled jurisdiction solely rests with the State Employment Labor Relations Board and goes against an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that Sheldon argues gives public employees the right to sue over private contract disputes, despite the Ohio Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act.
Sheldon wants the union to stop removing dues from his paycheck and refund the money taken after he quit. He also wants an injunction to prevent further removal.
