DETAILS ON THE NEW STATE LAW PROTECTING UNIONS

We have copied below the entire new New York State law protecting unions. Thanks to Bennett Fischer for sending us the law.

There are a couple of parts that stand out for me:
No  provision  of  this  article 
15  shall be construed to require an employee organization to provide repre- 
16  sentation  to  a non-member (i) during questioning by the employer, (ii) 
17  in statutory or administrative proceedings or to  enforce  statutory  or 
18  regulatory  rights, or (iii) in any stage of a grievance, arbitration or 
19  other contractual process concerning the evaluation or discipline  of  a 
20  public employee where the non-member is permitted to proceed without the 
21  employee organization and be represented by his or her own advocate. Nor 
22  shall  any  provision  of this article prohibit an employee organization 
23  from providing legal,  economic  or  job-related  services  or  benefits 
24  beyond  those  provided  in the agreement with a public employer only to 
25  its members. 

The non-member as I understand this is now able to be represented by his or her own advocate. Does that mean we are no longer beholden to the UFT Grievance Department and/or borough offices but only if we leave the UFT? For many who have dealt with some of the advocates in the UFT, that just might be a huge incentive to quit the union. Someone with a legal mind please read this for us non-lawyers.

To this non legal eye, it kind of looks like the state is inadvertently giving workers the green light to form competing employee advocacy organizations to defend themselves. It appears the intent of the law is to scare employees into staying in the union by saying that if you aren't in the union, you don't get union representation when you are in trouble. However, do the state lawmakers and governor have any idea how there are occasions when UFT advocacy leaves a little or sometimes a whole lot to be desired? Again, I am not a lawyer and require legal assistance to figure this out.

 (b) If any clause, sentence, paragraph, or part of a  signed  authori- 
11  zation  shall  be  adjudged  by  a court of competent jurisdiction to be 
12  unconstitutional or otherwise  invalid,  such  determination  shall  not 
13  affect,  impair or invalidate the remainder of such signed authorization 
14  but shall be confined in its operation to the  clause,  sentence,  para- 
15  graph,  or  part  of  the  signed authorization directly involved in the 
16  controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered. 

I think the state is saying we all don't have to opt back in if the Supreme Court rules, as we all expect them to, that agency fees are unconstitutional.

Attorneys please help us here too.

Here is the UFT interpretation of the new law from the Weekly Chapter Leader Update:

New law gives boost to unions facing Janus threat

Before a packed house of labor leaders and union members at UFT headquarters, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation on April 12 that helps New York’s public-employee unions recruit and retain members and reduces the number of services these unions, including the UFT, are obligated to provide to workers who do not pay to support those services. The new protection comes as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs the Janus v. AFSCME case — a right-wing lawsuit aiming to bar unions from collecting fair-share fees from workers who benefit from a union’s collective bargaining but choose not to belong to the union. The court is expected to issue a ruling in the case in May or June. “This is what we need to do in every state,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew told the 500-plus elected officials, labor leaders and union members. The law, which was hammered out as part of this year’s state budget talks, also makes it easier for unions in New York to sign up public-sector workers by requiring a public employer to notify the union within 30 days after a worker is hired and to hand over their name, home address, and work location. Under the law, the public employer must begin dues deductions within 30 days of receiving authorization. Gov. Cuomo warned that the Janus lawsuit was “the tip of the iceberg” in terms of the attack on working people and the labor movement. “They are coming at the union movement piece by piece,” he said to the assembled union leaders and members, because of labor’s political clout and “because you built and protect the middle class.” He called it the “first step of the resistance.” You can read the full story on the UFT website.

The actual text of the new law:

PART RRR 

 8    Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 208 of the civil service  law,  as
 9  amended  by  chapter  503  of  the  laws of 1971, is amended and two new
10  subdivisions 4 and 5 are added to read as follows:

 11    1. A public employer shall extend to an employee  organization  certi-
12  fied or recognized pursuant to this article the following rights:
13    (a)  to  represent  the  employees in negotiations notwithstanding the
14  existence of an agreement with an employee organization that is no long-
15  er certified or recognized, and in the settlement of grievances; and
16    (b) to membership dues deduction, upon presentation of dues  deduction
17  authorization  cards  signed by individual employees.  A public employer
18  shall commence making such deductions as soon as practicable, but in  no
19  case  later  than  thirty  days  after  receiving proof of a signed dues
20  deduction authorization card; and such dues shall be transmitted to  the
21  certified  or recognized employee organization within thirty days of the
22  deduction. A public employer shall  accept  a  signed  authorization  to
23  deduct from the salary of a public employee an amount for the payment of
24  his  or  her  dues in any format permitted by article three of the state
25  technology law. The right to such membership dues deduction shall remain
26  in full force and effect until:

27    (i) an individual employee revokes membership in the  employee  organ-
28  ization  in  writing in accordance with the terms of the signed authori-
29  zation; or
30    (ii) the individual employee is  no  longer  employed  by  the  public
31  employer,  provided  that  if  such  employee is, within a period of one
32  year, employed by the same public employer in a position represented  by
33  the  same  employee organization, the right to such dues deduction shall
34  be automatically reinstated.
35    (c) Should the individual employee who has  signed  a  dues  deduction
36  authorization card either be removed from a public employer's payroll or
37  otherwise  placed  on  any  type  of  involuntary  or voluntary leave of
38  absence, whether paid or unpaid, such public employee's membership in an
39  employee organization shall be continued  upon  that  public  employee's
40  return to the payroll or restoration to active duty from such a leave of
41  absence.

42    4. (a) Within thirty days of a public employee first being employed or
43  reemployed by a public employer, or within thirty days of being promoted
44  or transferred to a new bargaining unit, the public employer shall noti-
45  fy  the  employee  organization, if any, that represents that bargaining
46  unit of the employee's  name,  address,  job  title,  employing  agency,
47  department or other operating unit, and work location; and
48    (b)  Within thirty days of providing the notice in paragraph a of this
49  subdivision, a public employer shall allow a  duly  appointed  represen-
50  tative of the employee organization that represents that bargaining unit
51  to meet with such employee for a reasonable amount of time during his or
52  her  work  time without charge to leave credits, unless otherwise speci-
53  fied within an agreement bargained collectively under  article  fourteen
54  of  the  civil  service law, provided however that arrangements for such   

S. 7509--C                         192                        A. 9509--C 
 1  meeting must be scheduled in consultation with  a  designated  represen-
2  tative of the public employer.
3    5.  (a)  If  any  clause,  sentence, paragraph, or subdivision of this
4  section shall be adjudged by a court of  competent  jurisdiction  to  be
5  unconstitutional  or  otherwise invalid, such judgment shall not affect,
6  impair or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its
7  operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph,  or  subdivision  of  this
8  section  directly  involved  in  the  controversy in which such judgment
9  shall have been rendered.
10    (b) If any clause, sentence, paragraph, or part of a  signed  authori-
11  zation  shall  be  adjudged  by  a court of competent jurisdiction to be
12  unconstitutional or otherwise  invalid,  such  determination  shall  not
13  affect,  impair or invalidate the remainder of such signed authorization
14  but shall be confined in its operation to the  clause,  sentence,  para-
15  graph,  or  part  of  the  signed authorization directly involved in the
16  controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered.
17    § 2. Subdivision 1 of section 93-b of the general  municipal  law,  as
18  amended  by  chapter  632  of  the  laws  of 1964, is amended to read as
19  follows:
20    1.  The fiscal or disbursing officer of every municipal corporation or
21  other civil division or political subdivision of  the  state  is  hereby
22  authorized  to  deduct  from  the wage or salary of any employee of such
23  municipal corporation or civil division or political subdivision of  the
24  state  such  amount that such employee may specify in writing filed with
25  such fiscal or disbursing officer for the payment  of  dues  in  a  duly
26  organized  association or organization of civil service employees and to
27  transmit the sum so deducted to the said  association  or  organization.
28  Any  such  written  authorization  [may be withdrawn by such employee or
29  member at any time by filing written notice of such withdrawal with  the
30  fiscal  or disbursing officer] shall remain in effect in accordance with
31  subdivision one of section two hundred eight of the civil service law.
32    § 3. Subdivision 2 of section 201 of the state finance law, as amended
33  by chapter 233 of the laws of 1992, is amended to read as follows:
34    2. The comptroller is hereby authorized to deduct from the  salary  of
35  any  employee  of  the state such amount as such employee may specify in
36  writing filed in a manner determined by the comptroller for the  payment
37  of  membership  dues  in a duly organized association or organization of
38  civil service employees or faculty members of the state  university  and
39  to  transmit  the  sums so deducted to the said association or organiza-
40  tion. Any such written authorization [may be withdrawn by such  employee
41  at  any  time  upon filing written notice of such withdrawal in a manner
42  determined by the comptroller] shall remain in effect in accordance with
43  subdivision one of section two hundred eight of the civil  service  law.
44  The  foregoing notwithstanding, and subject to the provisions of article
45  fourteen of the civil service  law,  such  deductions  and  transmittals
46  shall be terminated as to one or more such associations or organizations
47  in  accordance  with  the written directions of the director of employee
48  relations, not more than thirty days after receipt by the comptroller of
49  such directions. The deductions and transmittals which were the  subject
50  of  such  directions shall not thereafter be resumed without the written
51  approval of such director.
52    § 4. Subdivision 2 of section 209-a  of  the  civil  service  law,  as
53  amended  by  chapter  467  of  the  laws  of 1990, is amended to read as
54  follows:
55    2. Improper employee organization practices. It shall be  an  improper
56  practice  for an employee organization or its agents deliberately (a) to     S. 7509--C                         193                        A. 9509--C
1  interfere with, restrain or coerce public employees in the  exercise  of
2  the  rights  granted in section two hundred two, or to cause, or attempt
3  to cause, a public employer to do so provided, however, that an employee
4  organization  does not interfere with, restrain or coerce public employ-
5  ees when it limits its services to and representation of non-members  in
6  accordance with this subdivision; (b) to refuse to negotiate collective-
7  ly  in good faith with a public employer, provided it is the duly recog-
8  nized or certified representative of the employees of such employer;  or
9  (c)  to breach its duty of fair representation to public employees under
10  this article. Notwithstanding any law, rule or regulation to the contra-
11  ry, an employee organization's duty of fair representation to  a  public
12  employee it represents but who is not a member of the employee organiza-
13  tion  shall be limited to the negotiation or enforcement of the terms of
14  an agreement with the public employer.
No  provision  of  this  article
15  shall be construed to require an employee organization to provide repre- 16  sentation  to  a non-member (i) during questioning by the employer, (ii)
17  in statutory or administrative proceedings or to  enforce  statutory  or
18  regulatory  rights, or (iii) in any stage of a grievance, arbitration or
19  other contractual process concerning the evaluation or discipline  of  a
20  public employee where the non-member is permitted to proceed without the
21  employee organization and be represented by his or her own advocate. Nor
22  shall  any  provision  of this article prohibit an employee organization
23  from providing legal,  economic  or  job-related  services  or  benefits
24  beyond  those  provided  in the agreement with a public employer only to
25  its members.
26    § 5. Nothing in this act shall be construed  to  impede,  infringe  or
27  diminish  the  rights and benefits which accrue to an employee organiza-
28  tion through a bonafide collective bargaining agreement.
29    § 6. This act shall take effect immediately.