Op-Ed: Unions Trampled Their Rights. These New Yorkers Fought Back

Every Labor Day, union officials tout themselves as the voice of working people.

But what happens when workers talk back? New York public employees have found themselves in union officials' crosshairs for asking difficult questions, challenging the status quo, or trying to exercise their rights.

Ed Seabron's union defended an official who threatened and harassed him, as Seabron alleges in court. Ashley Kjarbo's union apparently worked with her boss to discipline her. Ray Michielini sued his union, claiming it cost him thousands in lost wages.

Their stories are a window into a world where union officials can run roughshod over workers' rights—unless someone holds them accountable.

Ed Seabron , a longtime NYPD tow operator who helped clear NYC's streets in the aftermath of 9/11 and other emergencies, resigned his membership with AFSCME, District Council 37 because he was frustrated the union didn't bargain for overtime or hazard pay that other emergency personnel received.

Seabron just wanted better representation. Union officials made it personal.

One day, Seabron, who is African-American, found himself staring at a doctored image of himself shaking hands with someone dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes. An AFSCME vice president, also African-American, had posted the photo to an employee Facebook group.

To Seabron, the union official's post, accompanied by a video threatening, "We're gonna play dirty," crossed a line. "It's hard to think of a worse insult one black man can level at another than to falsely depict him as a KKK collaborator," he says .

Seabron filed an unfair labor practice charge alleging the union vice president's threatening statements had broken the law.

But the city's Board of Collective Bargaining dismissed his case once, joined the union's side as Seabron's adversary on appeal, then ruled against him again after a state court ruled for him and sent the case back—a process that Seabron believes violated his due process right to a hearing before an unbiased adjudicator. He is now asking a state appellate court to vacate the city board's decision and send the case to a truly neutral decision maker. Seabron is represented by the Fairness Center, the nonprofit public interest firm where I serve as president.

Meanwhile, the union has downplayed its vice president's Facebook post as "campaign puffery meant to reinforce the Union's message." According to Seabron , "it's as if union officials approve of [the vice president's] message that seeking better representation is like working with the KKK."

Union officials can also wield their authority through the workplace chain of command to make life difficult for workers who don't fall in line.

IRS employee Ashley Kjarbo of Brookhaven, for example, tried to leave the National Treasury Employees Union so she wouldn't have to pay monthly dues amid a season of financial hardship.

But union officials gave Kjarbo the runaround when she tried to exercise her right not to be part of the union.

A union president reported Kjarbo to her boss, who reprimanded her for "discourteous and unprofessional behavior" and threatened to impose further discipline unless she stopped trying to leave the union, she alleged.

After the Fairness Center helped Kjarbo file unfair labor practice charges against the union and the IRS , the agency removed the reprimand from her employee file and sent a notice to Kjarbo's colleagues promising to not "interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of their rights."

My firm also represented Ray Michielini , a railman for the Long Island Rail Road who similarly found himself targeted when he decided to leave his union.

Soon after resigning his membership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Michielini realized he was no longer receiving previously routine overtime opportunities. A union executive board member confirmed that Michielini would not be getting called for overtime anymore because he was in "non-compliance" with the collective bargaining agreement, which required workers to join the union and "maintain" union membership "as a condition of employment," his lawsuit alleged.

Only after Michielini took the union and his employer to court for violating his rights did the union agree to pay him thousands of dollars in lost wages and promise not to retaliate against him in the future.

Labor Day should be a reminder that unions serve workers. Some New York union officials seem to have gotten it the other way around. When they do, workers should know that they can still make their voices heard and vindicate their rights through the courts.