On March 27, 2019, two University of California workers filed a federal lawsuit alleging union dues were illegally deducted from their paychecks.

Cara O’Callaghan has worked as the finance manager of the Sport Club program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, since 2009. Jenée Misraje has worked as an administrative assistant at the University of California, Los Angeles, since 2015. Both O’Callaghan and Misraje resigned union membership over the last year and demanded the universities stop deducting union dues from their paychecks.

Despite the decisive victory for workers’ rights in the U.S. Supreme Court Janus v. AFSCME decision, their requests have been ignored. The University of California continues to deduct dues from O’Callaghan and Misraje’s paychecks and their union, Teamsters Local 2010, refuses to honor their resignation until arbitrary opt-out periods.

Attorneys from the California Policy Center and the Liberty Justice Center have filed O’Callaghan et al., v. Napolitano et al., on their behalf to force the union to recognize workers’ First Amendment rights.