OLYMPIA, Wash. –  Even after a court ruling last month established that SEIU 775 wasted two years in court fighting to keep its members from even knowing about their constitutional rights to opt out of union dues and fees, the union still prevents many home healthcare providers from exercising those rights.

On Thursday, attorneys from the Freedom Foundation and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, filed a federal, class-action lawsuit at the U.S. Court for the Western District in Tacoma on behalf of at least a half dozen home healthcare providers who learned of their constitutional rights after being notified by the Freedom Foundation.  The caregivers decided to exercise those rights by opting out of SEIU 775 membership and union fees, and yet SEIU 775 is still refusing to allow them to opt out of union fees.

The action comes a month after the Washington State Supreme Court ended a bitter, two-year court battle by refusing to hear SEIU 775’s last-ditch appeal and ordering the state to give the Freedom Foundation names of 30,000 home-based healthcare providers represented by the union.

SEIU had argued since the Harris v. Quinn ruling in 2014 that the names were not public information. The union further asserted that their disclosure would violate privacy rights and that “notifying home healthcare providers of their constitutional rights constitutes a commercial purpose.”

The unions sought to prohibit disclosure of the names to the Freedom Foundation, but the courts at every level unanimously rejected those arguments.

The Freedom Foundation can now ramp up its efforts to inform the providers of their legal rights. In the meantime, the lawsuit would force SEIU 775 to allow home healthcare providers who opt out to stop paying dues, which SEIU 775 is not doing for many providers.

“SEIU 775 absolutely has an obligation to respect providers’ constitutional right to not financially support a union,” said James Abernathy, Freedom Foundation litigation counsel. “It’s not living up to that obligation. Not only didn’t these providers know about their constitutional right, but the union leaders waged a two-year war to keep their own members in the dark – and they did it using the members’ own dues money.”

The burden of proof is on the union, Abernathy explained, because of the nature of the rights at stake.

“In an ordinary business transaction, both parties are expected to understand their rights and neither side is required to explain anything to the other,” he said. “But in this case, the providers never knew their constitutional rights and must be allowed to opt out of SEIU 775.

“The union not only didn’t tell them, but it actively worked to keep anyone else from telling them,” Abernathy said. “That’s obviously an unacceptable attempt to force providers to effectively pay union dues against their will.”

The suit asks for an injunction to force the union to honor the rights of home healthcare providers who exercise their constitutional right to cease the financial support of a union. It would also refund any dues and fees collected by SEIU 775 after a provider objected to union membership and fee payments.

“SEIU 775 knew two years ago what it was required to do under Harris,” Abernathy said. “Instead, they acted like the ruling never happened – all the while collecting millions of dollars from people who wouldn’t have paid a dime if they’d known the truth.

“It’s high time the unions were reminded they’re not above the law,” he said.