Gwirtz v. Ohio Educ. Ass'n, 88-4126

• Decision Date: 28 November 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-4126,88-4126
• Citation: 887 F.2d 678
• Parties: 132 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2650, 58 USLW 2275, 56 Ed. Law Rep. 749 Dennis GWIRTZ; Sarah Korns; Alan Siggelkow; Donald Sowash; Doris Williams; James P. Chinni, On behalf of themselves and others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. OHIO EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 678

887 F.2d 678

132 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2650, 58 USLW 2275,

56 Ed. Law Rep. 749

Dennis GWIRTZ; Sarah Korns; Alan Siggelkow; Donald

Sowash; Doris Williams; James P. Chinni, On

behalf of themselves and others

similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. OHIO EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 88-4126.

United States Court of Appeals,

Sixth Circuit.

Argued Aug. 17, 1989.

Decided Oct. 11, 1989.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Nov. 28, 1989.

James A. Calhoun, Mansfield, Ohio, Glenn M. Taubman (argued), National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Springfield, Va., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Bruce R. Lerner (argued), Robert H. Chanin, Bredhoff & Kaiser, Washington, D.C., Ira J Mirkin, Green, Haines, Sgambati, Murphy & Macala, Youngstown, Ohio, John A. Daily, Daily & Condrea, Akron, Ohio, for defendant-appellee.

Before KEITH and MARTIN, Circuit Judges; GIBBONS, District Judge. ^*

BOYCE F. MARTIN, Jr., Circuit Judge.

Six nonunion public school teachers appeal the district court's judgment for the Ohio Education Association in this action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. The plaintiff teachers claim that their first amendment rights were violated by the defendant union's collection of fair share fees under a public employment collective bargaining agreement. We hold that the union's procedure in collecting the fair share fees from the plaintiffs is not constitutionally infirm and accordingly affirm the decision of the district court.

I.

The plaintiffs, public school teachers in two districts in Ohio, declined to join the local education associations that are recognized as the exclusive bargaining representatives for all teachers in their respective districts. Under Ohio law, public employees within a bargaining unit who are not members of the unit's designated exclusive bargaining representative may be required to pay "fair share fees" to the exclusive representative and its affiliated organizations. Ohio Revised Code Sec. 4117.09(C). Pursuant to this provision of Ohio law, the local education associations sought to collect fair share fees from nonmember employees, including the plaintiffs, during the 1987-88 year.

To collect fair share fees from nonmembers, the local associations followed a procedure adopted by the Ohio Education Association, the affiliated state union of the local associations, in which certain financial information would be disclosed to all the nonmember employees required to pay fair share fees. The information disclosed to the nonmember employees included: (1) the audited basic financial statement of the Ohio Education Association; (2) an audited "Supplemental Schedule" setting forth the expenditures by the Ohio Education Association that were chargeable to nonmember employees and those expenditures that were not chargeable to nonmembers; ¹ (3) the 1987-88 budget of the Ohio Education Association; and (4) the audited financial statement and "Supplemental Schedule" of the National Education Association, the affiliated national union of the local associations. The Supplemental Schedule of the Ohio Education Association provided to nonmember employees was issued pursuant to Statement Auditing Standard No. 29, which is one of the various standards issued by the Auditing Standards Board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

The plaintiffs filed suit against the Ohio Education Association on December 30, 1987, claiming that the association had violated their constitutional rights by failing to disclose adequate financial information prior to collecting fair share fees from them. More specifically, the plaintiffs alleged that the Association was constitutionally required to disclose its financial information with a "Special Report" issued pursuant to Statement on Auditing Standard No. 14, rather than with a Supplemental Schedule issued pursuant to Statement on Auditing Standard No. 29. On February 1, 1988, the plaintiffs also filed a motion for class certification, seeking to represent a class of all current and future nonmember employees who are required to pay fair share fees under their respective collective bargaining agreements.

The district court held a one-day evidentiary hearing on April 29, 1988, and issued its memorandum opinion granting judgment in favor of the Ohio Education Association on November 18, 1988 704 F.Supp. 1481. In its opinion, the district court made specific findings of fact and conclusions of law which generally concluded that, although the level of detail and the monetary precision on an Auditing Standard No. 14 Special Report are greater than on an Auditing Standard No. 29 Supplemental Schedule, the type of financial disclosure provided by the Association was sufficient. More specifically, the court found that both a Supplemental Schedule and a Special Report are "proper reporting mechanism[s] for the special subject matters such as the matter in this case" and that a Supplemental Schedule accompanying a basic financial statement is subjected to an independent audit because the basic financial statements, from which the Supplemental Schedule is derived, are subjected to detailed testing by auditors. Because the district court decided in favor of the Ohio Education Association, the court found it unnecessary to rule on the plaintiffs' motion for class certification. Plaintiffs filed a timely appeal to this court on December 6, 1988.

II.

On appeal, the plaintiffs argue that the Ohio Education Association is constitutionally required to provide them with financial information audited at the "highest" available level of auditing service. According to the plaintiffs, the "low level" of audit service that the Ohio Education Association's auditors have performed does not insure that the chargeability or nonchargeability of the Association's fair share fees is accurately determined. The plaintiffs assert that the standard is the highest available level of audit service. They argue that this is the only way they can determine if the share fees are used appropriately. Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson, 475 U.S. 292, 106 S.Ct. 1066, 89 L.Ed.2d 232 (1986); Damiano v. Matish, 830 F.2d 1363 (6th Cir.1987); Tierney v. City of Toledo, 824 F.2d 1497 (6th Cir.1987).

We disagree with the plaintiffs' assertion that Hudson, Damiano and Tierney require a union such as the Ohio Education Association to engage its auditors to perform the "highest" possible level of audit service on financial information provided to payors of fair share fees who decline to join their designated exclusive bargaining representatives. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the district court that the Association's disclosure of financial information to the plaintiffs is constitutionally sufficient.

In Hudson, the Supreme Court examined the procedures utilized by the Chicago Teachers Union to collect fair share fees from teachers who did not become members of the union. The Court held, in part, that the first amendment dictated that the nonmember teachers be given "sufficient information to gauge the propriety of the union's [fair share] fee." 475 U.S. at 306, 106 S.Ct. at 1076. The Court stated that the union must identify its expenditures for collective bargaining and contract administration for which the nonmember teachers could be charged a fair share fee, but noted that "absolute precision in the calculation of the [fair share fee] charge to nonmembers cannot be expected or required." Although a union "need not provide nonmembers with an exhaustive and detailed list of all its expenditures," the Court declared that "adequate" financial disclosure by a union "surely would include the major categories of expenses, as well as verification by an independent auditor." 475 U.S. at 307 n. 18, 106 S.Ct. at 1076 n. 18.

In Damiano and Tierney, this circuit applied Hudson to cases involving nonunion member public employees who challenged the procedures followed by unions for collecting fair share fees from them. This court in Tierney found the procedure for the collection of fair share fees from nonmembers to be constitutionally infirm under Hudson because nonmembers were not, prior to the collection of fees from them, provided with detailed financial information concerning all major categories of union expenses that had been audited by an independent certified public accountant. 824 F.2d at 1506. Similarly, in Damiano, this court found the procedure implemented by a union to provide nonunion member employees with information regarding fair share fees to be constitutionally deficient under Hudson because (1) the information provided by the union failed to inform nonunion members of the actual amount of the fee or how the fee had been calculated; (2) the nonunion members had to specifically request the information from the union; and (3) the nonunion employees were required to object to the union's expenditures of the fees before the union had even provided any information about the fees. 830 F.2d at 1370-71.

Applying Hudson, Tierney and Damiano to the present case, we conclude that the district court did not err in determining the Ohio Education Association's financial...