Several Erie Water Works employees have won a lawsuit against their union, a suit filed more than two years ago.

Eight Erie Water Works employees sued their union, the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, Local 2206 (AFSCME), claiming the union misled them and caused the employees to lose opportunities for better wages and benefits.

According to The Fairness Center, which represented the employees, says the issue first came up during a 2018 contract negotiation when Erie Water Works. The employer made AFSCME a final contract offer with two distinct options hinging on retirement plan changes. But when union officials presented the contract to union membership, they concealed the option with better retirement benefits and higher wages for employees, and presented members the opportunity to vote only on the option that the union preferred.

When employees later learned that they had been misled, they asked for a re-vote, but the union refused.  With the help of the Fairness Center, eight EWW employees filed a lawsuit alleging AFSCME officials had violated their duty of fair representation - and their own “Bill of Rights for Union Members.”

On January 13, 2021, a judge ruled in favor of the workers, ruling union officials breached their collective bargaining rights.

It’s a ruling Nathan McGrath says they’re all pleased with, “They are really joyful, they're really relieved that the court understood that they had really been sold out by their union," said McGrath. "The union was not acting in their best interest, the union was acting with their interest in mind and the union's agenda, not the membership, which is kind of strange because the unions are there for the employees and there for the workers, they should be doing what's best for them, but they weren't," McGrath continued.

The lawsuit is seeking damages of more than $50,000 and money the employees lost from what would have been a better contract, a judge will decide just what they'll be awarded at a later date.

McGrath says the ASFME union concealed pertinent information and deliberately misled its members, breaching their duty of fair representation. McGrath hopes this ruling deters other unions from doing the same, “I think our clients hope the broader message is that unions who are entrusted, with great responsibility, to act in the best interest of their members. Hopefully they take note and say, 'We need to push our members' priorities and agendas ahead of our own.'”

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