Court rules Avon Lake union does not have to refund 'fair-share' fees to teacher

AVON LAKE — The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled last week that the Avon Lake Education Association does not have to refund "fair-share" fees that teacher Sarah Lee was required to pay as a non-member of the union. On Tuesday, the court dismissed Lee's appeal on the basis that the collection of fair-share fees — payments non-members must make to cover collective bargaining costs — was legal at the time the union collected them from her. Public-sector labor unions can no longer require the collection of fees from non-members after the U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 decision in the Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 case. The Avon Lake Education Association is an affiliate of the Ohio Education Association and the National Education Association. Lee was appealing a district court ruling that the union did not have to refund the fees. In the Appeals Court's written opinion, Circuit Judge Richard Allen Griffin affirmed that the union "was entitled to rely on its good faith in following existing Ohio law and prior Supreme Court precedent, which had expressly permitted fair-share fees." In her appeal, filed in March 2019, Lee said that after she was hired, she was required to join the Avon Lake Education Association union or pay fair-share fees. She opted to pay the fees, but filed a suit when she anticipated the ruling in the Janus case. Similar issues have been decided in favor of unions in the Seventh Circuit, Ninth Circuit and multiple district courts, according to Griffin's opinion. "We now add our voice to that chorus," he wrote. "The Union was authorized by Ohio law and binding Supreme Court precedent to collect agency fees."