UUP Cobleskill Chapter

Dear Colleagues, 

Great news! I am pleased to inform you that the federal district court has issued a decision dismissing the case in Seidemann, et al. v. Professional Staff Congress, et al. in its entirety.   

This case was a post-Janus class-action lawsuit against UUP, PSC, NYSUT, AFT and other unions.  The plaintiffs were agency fee payers whose agency fee withholding stopped immediately following the Supreme Court’s decision in Janus.   In this suit, the plaintiffs brought a variety of claims against the unions, chief among them a claim seeking repayment of all agency fees paid by the plaintiffs and other class members prior to the Janus decision.   The district court dismissed the case in its entirely.  In doing so it held that UUP and the other unions could not be required to repay agency fees collected prior to the decision in Janus as the unions were entitled to rely in good faith on Supreme Court decisions prior to Janus which found agency fees constitutional. 

We are fully anticipating that the plaintiffs will appeal the district court’s decision in our case.  However, the court’s decision was consistent with a growing number of similar federal court decisions across the country, including a number of federal appeals court decisions, affirming the “good faith” defense against agency fee repayment claims.  

For those of you who are interested in reading it, the decision is attached below.   

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At a time when I am sure all of us are eager for good news, it’s nice to get a little bit at the start of the year.  

In Solidarity,

Fred

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Download UUP’s PEP Fact Sheet HERE

SUNY employees represented by United University Professions can save money on New York State Health Insurance premium costs through the UUP 2020 Productivity Enhancement Program.

The PEP, a negotiated benefit between UUP and the state, allows eligible UUP-represented full-time and part-time employees to exchange accrued vacation leave for a credit of up to $1,200 to use toward the employee share of NYSHIP premiums on a biweekly basis.

The deadline to apply for the UUP 2020 PEP is Friday, Nov. 15. Contact your campus Human Resources Department for an enrollment form. Employees must enroll for PEP each year.

CLICK HERE to download UUP’s PEP Fact Sheet.

2016-2022ContingentKnowYourRightsUpdated0919

Colleagues,

I have received a reach-out from the former Director of Research for UUP, Dr. Tom Kriger, who is presently Director of Research at the North American Building Trades national office. He is seeking our help as the trades deal with ominous signs of impending attacks on their excellent, union-sponsored apprenticeship programs. The details are as follows.

The apprenticeship programs, which are the lifeblood of the unionized construction industry, are under attack from the Trump Administration.  The Department of Labor is implementing something called “Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs,” (IRAP) which are apprenticeship-light type programs. In these programs, the Department of Labor will allow private industry groups to approve their own apprenticeship programs with few standards, little oversight and very light reporting requirements.  The interesting aspect of this is that any corporation in US can set up an identical training program RIGHT NOW with similar requirements, but without these new regulatory changes they wouldn’t be able to use the name APPRENTICESHIP and call these trainees apprentices.