Faculty Member Sues PCC Union Over Agency Fees

AN ADJUNCT INSTRUCTOR at Pasadena City College has filed a lawsuit against the PCC teachers’ union over a recent move to charge all faculty members, not just union members, a share of costs incurred by the union.

Chemistry instructor Rich McKee is arguing that the union hasn’t justified the fees it is charging and that faculty members aren’t being assessed equally.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, calls on the PCC chapter of the California Teachers Association to implement a per-capita fee, rather than an across-the-board charge of one percent of a faculty member’s salary.

Union president Suzanne Anderson said Friday that she could not comment on the lawsuit because union leaders had not seen it.

In April, the union started collecting agency shop fees from full- and part-time faculty who are not union members. McKee protested, saying that the fees amounted to an unfair labor practice.

Union leaders say they have received no complaints about the new charge. Only one person, of a total of 380 full- and 700 part-time faculty, has filed for an exemption on the grounds of religious objections, union negotiator Roger Marheine said.

Membership in the PCC CTA has increased since the fee was implemented, since faculty members are charged even if they don’t join the union.

McKee isn’t arguing against the fee itself: He believes faculty members should pay for the services, such as contract negotiations, the union provides on their behalf.

“At the same time, we lose control over our speech rights,” McKee said. Faculty members are effectively paying the union to expound the views union leaders decide on, he added.

The one-percent charge is unfair because instructors who have higher salaries don’t receive proportionately more services from the union, McKee said.

“Fair share, as it’s called, really should be a fair share to everyone because they’re all being deprived in the same way,” McKee said.

Under the law, union leaders are required to provide an independent verification of expenditures, which they haven’t done, McKee said. In addition, the union hasn’t proved that the fees to be charged are in fact a fair share for faculty who benefit from union activities, he said.

According to the lawsuit, the union’s expenditures last year that could be charged to non- members were less than $120,000, but the new fees would generate more than $385,000.

His share, McKee argues, should be $92.41 under a per- capita fee system rather than the $820.92 he was charged for the year.

“The union has made no effort to simply cover their costs,” McKee said. “It’s more than three times what the real chargeable expenses were last year.

“I just want to ensure that we know what those costs exactly are, and I believe that they should be distributed equally over all members of the union,” McKee said.