SACRAMENTO, Calif. (May 8, 2001) -- The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California has ruled that the California State Employees Association (CSEA) union must return approximately $3 million in forced union dues illegally seized from the paychecks of more than 37,000 employees throughout the state.

"This ruling sends a clear message to Big Labor in California that they can no longer violate the rights of employees with impunity," said Stefan Gleason [1], Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation.

In its ruling, the District Court found that CSEA union officials illegally seized forced union dues from employees without providing a proper independently audited financial disclosure of union expenditures as required by the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson [2] decision.

"Fearing that employees will learn how their dues are spent, union officials go to great lengths to hide the true extent of their political spending," said Gleason.

The court ruled that CSEA union officials must return to all nonmembers 20 percent, plus interest, of all forced dues seized in the 1999 "fee-payer year." (Union officials seized approximately $1.1 million per month from 37,000 employees over 13 months.)

The District Court's ruling came in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by Christine Cummings of Sacramento and seven other state employees. The lawsuit was filed in November 1999, with the assistance of National Right to Work Foundation attorneys on behalf of all state government workers in State Bargaining Units 1, 3, 4, 11, 14, 15, 17, 20, and 21 who have declined to join the union or who have joined since the union began enforcing its "forced-share fee" contract, which was signed by Governor Davis on October 10, 1999.