Hudson v. Chicago Teachers Union, Local No. 1

• Decision Date: 03 November 1983
• Docket Number: No. 83 C 2619.,83 C 2619.
• Citation: 573 F. Supp. 1505
• Parties: Annie Lee HUDSON, K. Celeste Campbell, Estherlene Holmes, Edna Rose McCoy, Dr. Debra Ann Petitan, Walter A. Sherrill, and Beverly F. Underwood, Plaintiffs, v. The CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION, LOCAL NO. 1; Robert M. Healey, Jacqueline B. Vaughn, Rochelle D. Hart, Thomas H. Reece, Glendis Hambrick, individually and as officers of the Chicago Teachers Union; the Board of Education of the City of Chicago, Illinois; Raoul Villalobos, Martha Jantho, Thomas Corcoran, Betty Bonow, Sol Brandzel, Clark Burrus, Leon Jackson, Rose Mary Janus, Dr. Wilfred Reid, Myrna Salazar, Dr. Luis Salces, Viola Thomas, individually and as officers and members of the Board of Education for the City of Chicago, Illinois, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

573 F. Supp. 1505

Annie Lee HUDSON, K. Celeste Campbell, Estherlene Holmes, Edna Rose McCoy, Dr. Debra Ann Petitan, Walter A. Sherrill, and Beverly F. Underwood, Plaintiffs, v. The CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION, LOCAL NO. 1; Robert M. Healey, Jacqueline B. Vaughn, Rochelle D. Hart, Thomas H. Reece, Glendis Hambrick, individually and as officers of the Chicago Teachers Union; the Board of Education of the City of Chicago, Illinois; Raoul Villalobos, Martha Jantho, Thomas Corcoran, Betty Bonow, Sol Brandzel, Clark Burrus, Leon Jackson, Rose Mary Janus, Dr. Wilfred Reid, Myrna Salazar, Dr. Luis Salces, Viola Thomas, individually and as officers and members of the Board of Education for the City of Chicago, Illinois, Defendants.

No. 83 C 2619.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, E.D.

November 3, 1983.

Louis Bulkeley, John V. Ryan, Margaret Garvey, Rooks, Pitts, Fullagar & Poust, Chicago, Ill., Joseph J. Hahn, Nat. Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc., Springfield, Va., for plaintiffs.

Joseph M. Jacobs, Charles Orlove, Stephen Horwitz, Jacobs, Burns, Sugarman & Orlove, Wayne Giampietro, Lawrence Poltrock, DeJong, Poltrock & Giampietro, Chicago, Ill., for CTU and defendants Healey, Vaughn, Hart, Reece, and Hambrick.

Robert Wolf, John Wren, Patricia Whitten, Law Div., Bd. of Educ., Thomas Brown, Chicago, Ill., for Bd. and defendants Villalobos, Jantho, Corcoran, Bonow, Brandzel, Burrus, Jackson, Janus, Reid, Salazar, Salces, and Thomas.

ORDER

BUA, District Judge.

This matter comes before the Court upon a complaint accompanied by a motion for a preliminary injunction. Plaintiffs are employees of the Board of Education of the City of Chicago (the "Board") who are not members of the Chicago Teachers Union ("CTU"). Named as defendants are the Board, the twelve members of the Board individually and as officers and members, and the CTU.

Plaintiffs' complaint is in seven counts, challenging the constitutionality of Ill.Rev. Stat. ch. 122 ¶ 10-22.40a (1981) on its face and as applied, under both the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Illinois. Plaintiffs claim violations of their civil rights under Title 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988, seeking damages and invoking this Court's equitable powers under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343 for injunctive and declaratory relief. The suit is brought on behalf of plaintiffs and on behalf of all those similarly situated as employees of the Board of Education of the City of Chicago who are not members of the Chicago Teachers Union. A motion to maintain a class action and for certification of the class was filed on May 19, 1983.

The Court set May 26, 1983 for hearing on the motion for a preliminary injunction. Subsequently, the parties agreed to advance the matter for a full trial on the merits pursuant to Rule 65(a)(2) F.R.C.P. The presentation of testimony and evidence proceeded accordingly. Based upon its review of the evidence presented at trial and the parties' pretrial and post trial briefs, the Court enters the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.

FINDINGS OF FACT¹

I. Background

Since 1967, the Chicago Teachers Union ("CTU") has served as the exclusive bargaining representative to the Board of Education of the City of Chicago (the "Board") on behalf of the approximately 27,500 persons who are included within the bargaining unit of Board employees.² Membership in CTU is voluntary; all but five percent of all employees in the bargaining unit are union members. All employees, however, whether or not members of the union, are fully covered by the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between CTU and the Board. Until December, 1982, the entire cost of collective bargaining and contract administration was underwritten by CTU members through their union dues. Thus, those teachers and other employees within the bargaining unit who chose not to join CTU received the benefits of CTU's collective bargaining efforts without contributing financially to the costs of such efforts.

For several years, CTU had attempted without success to negotiate a "fair share fee" clause into its labor contracts with the Board.³ The major obstacle was the absence of any language in the Illinois School Code, Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 122 ¶ 1-1 et seq. (1981), enabling the Board to agree to such a clause. Effective August 1, 1981, the Illinois Legislature enacted a statute providing as follows:

Non-member proportionate share payments in lieu of dues.

Where a collective bargaining agreement is entered into with an employee representative organization, the school board may include in the agreement a provision requiring employees covered by the agreement who are not members of the representative organization to pay their proportionate share of the cost of the collective bargaining process and contract administration, measured by the amount of dues uniformly required by members. In such case, proportionate share payments shall be deducted by the board from the earnings of the non-member employees and paid to the representative organization.

(Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 122 ¶ 10-22.40a) (1981).

Acting under the newly granted authority of ¶ 10-22.40a, the Board agreed to the inclusion of a "fair share fee" clause in the next collective bargaining agreement with CTU. The clause was contained in Article 1, Section 8.2 of the one-year collective bargaining agreement between CTU and the Board, effective September 1, 1982, which read as follows:

1-8.2. All full-time employees covered by this Agreement who are not members of the UNION shall, commencing sixty (60) days after their employment or the effective date of the Agreement, whichever is later, and continuing during the term of this Agreement, and so long as they remain non-members of the UNION, pay to the UNION each month their proportionate share of the cost of the collective bargaining process and contract administration measured by the amount of dues uniformly required by members of the UNION. Such proportionate share payments shall be deducted by the BOARD from the earnings of the non-member full-time employees and paid to the UNION. The UNION shall submit to the BOARD an affidavit which specifies the amount which constitutes said proportionate share which shall not exceed the dues uniformly required of members of the UNION.

The UNION shall indemnify and hold harmless the Board of Education, its members, officers, agents and employees from and against any and all claims, demands, actions, complaints, suits, or other forms of liability that shall arise out of or by reason of action taken by the BOARD for the purposes of complying with the above provisions of this Article, or in reliance on any list, notice, certification, affidavit or assignment furnished under any of such provisions.

Shortly after CTU and the Board signed the new agreement, CTU amended its constitution and by-laws to authorize the CTU to determine the amount of the fair share fee, receive and consider objections thereto, and set up a hearing procedure for non-members who objected to deductions. Accordingly, CTU adopted a hearing and appeal procedure known as the "CTU Implementation Program." Under the procedure, any non-member could object to any expenditure by CTU of his or her fair share fee payroll deductions for activities or causes which were political or ideological and not germane to the collective bargaining process or contract administration. The objector was required to individually notify the president of CTU of his or her objection by registered mail within 30 days after the first payroll deduction. The objection would be considered by CTU's Executive Committee, and the objector would be notified within 30 days of any decision as to a reduction in the amount of the payroll deduction. The objector could appeal within another 30 days, and receive a personal hearing before the CTU Executive Board. If still unsatisfied, the objector could invoke a determination by an impartial arbitrator to be appointed by the CTU president from a list maintained by the Illinois State Board of Education of accredited arbitrators. CTU was to bear the cost of such a proceeding. A determination favorable to the objector would result in an immediate reduction in the amount of deductions for all non-union members and a rebate to the objector. Provision was also made for consolidating proceedings in the case of multiple objectors.

The CTU Implementation Program was designed to become available only after the first fair share fee deduction. Non-members were not provided any right or opportunity to challenge CTU's initial request to the Board or the basis on which the deduction was calculated, nor were non-members given the right or opportunity to challenge the deduction prior to the time the deduction was actually made.

The CTU determined the amount of the fair share fee based on its account ledgers and other records for the year beginning July 1, 1981 and ending June 30, 1982. Calculations were made by the assistant office manager, with the assistance of counsel and the financial secretary of CTU. The CTU estimated that a total of $188,549.82 in expenditures was unrelated to the costs of collective bargaining and contract administration. Based upon its financial statements, CTU calculated its income for the year at $4,103,701.58. As a result, CTU determined that the fair share fee for the contract year 1982-83 should be 95 percent of union dues, based on the calculation that $188,549.82 divided by $4,103,701.58 equals approximately five percent.⁴ Current CTU dues were at that time $17.35 per month for ten months for teachers and $12.15 per month for ten months for "career service employees."⁵ Accordingly, the amount to be deducted each month for ten months would be $16.48 from non-union teachers' paychecks and $11.54 from non-union career service employees.

In October, 1982, CTU requested the Board to begin making deductions. The request was accompanied by an affidavit...