This Labor Day, listen to the workers whom union officials have left behind.
This Labor Day, listen to the workers whom union officials have left behind.
‘F ile a grievance on me.”
That’s what a union president told Josh Newcomer — after stringing him along with false promises, meeting privately with his boss, and deliberately blowing a deadline that cost him tens of thousands of dollars, according to Newcomer’s recently filed labor charge against the union. For public workers like Newcomer, who works at a prison in Pennsylvania, the union didn’t stand up to management. It stood with it, arm in arm.
This Labor Day, union officials will give speeches and march in parades, celebrating themselves as champions of the little guy. But what about the workers they’ve left behind — those ignored, betrayed, or punished by the very organizations meant to protect them?
A longtime union member, Newcomer was sidelined for eight months during a baseless investigation, losing tens of thousands of dollars in overtime, holiday, and weekend pay. The local president of the American Federation of Government Employees union called the case a “gold mine” but changed his tune after a closed-door meeting with a prison official — then ran out the clock on Newcomer’s defense, according to legal filings.
Now, Newcomer is suing his union to recover back pay and hold it accountable. He wasn’t looking for a legal fight. But when the union he paid to defend him sided with the people coming after him, what choice did he have?
He’s not alone. At the Fairness Center, where I serve as president and general counsel, we represent Newcomer and are hearing from more and more public employees who have learned the hard way that today’s unions don’t always stand with the rank and file. Too often, they act like another layer of management, unwilling to rock the boat to advocate for the people they’re supposed to serve.
Just ask James MacCarthy. A veteran public school teacher in New Jersey, MacCarthy was stunned when his own union helped an anonymous co-worker file a sexual harassment complaint against him. Local teachers’ union officials didn’t speak to MacCarthy first, didn’t share the allegations, and didn’t even tell him who had accused him. For six months, he was left in the dark, treated as guilty until proven innocent, and was unable to set the record straight as his reputation unraveled, according to court filings in his case.
MacCarthy was eventually cleared, but the damage was done. His good name was stained, his classroom was relocated, and his trust in the union he had paid dues to for nearly two decades was shattered.
But you don’t have to be a dues-paying member of a union to be let down by one. In Connecticut, physical education teacher John Grande respectfully criticized a DEI-style training after being asked for his opinion. In response, his school district investigated him, issued a written reprimand, ordered him to attend sensitivity training, and threatened termination if he spoke out again.
By contract, only the union can take a grievance to arbitration. But the Hartford Federation of Teachers refused because Grande wasn’t a union member, even though Connecticut law requires unions to represent all employees in a bargaining unit, members or not.
The district punished him. The union stood by and watched.
Trapped and unable to pursue arbitration, Grande filed an unfair-labor-practice charge against the union. The Connecticut labor board sided with him, finding “direct evidence of purposeful discrimination” by the union and calling its defense “wholly frivolous.”
Defending workers from unwarranted discipline is a fundamental union duty. So is negotiating — and enforcing — a fair contract. But if it serves their purpose, union officials will sometimes stand aside even when management violates a contract.
That’s what happened to Pennsylvania employee Todd Burns. After earning the best performance rating at the Public Utilities Commission, Burns applied for a promotion he believed he had earned. His union-negotiated contract promised promotions based on seniority when qualifications were equal.
Burns had the highest qualifications, but the job went to someone less senior who was also a friend of the hiring manager, according to court documents. He asked his union, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 13, to enforce the contract, but it refused. Now, Burns is suing the union and the state for allegedly colluding to deny him the promotion he had earned.
When union officials let them down, each of these workers turned to the courts for justice — not because they wanted to sue but because no one else would help.
This Labor Day, skip the slogans and listen to the workers who had to fight not just their employers but their unions, too. When union officials lose focus on providing fair representation, workers may see them more as tools of management than as true advocates.