Palm Springs union admits unconstitutional conduct in settlement

The Public Employees Association of Palm Springs (PEAPS), a small but muscular government labor union representing public employees in the California desert community, has agreed to settle a legal dispute with a public employee alleging the union violated her First Amendment right to freedom from compelled speech.

Let’s unpack this.

Several years ago, a group of Palm Springs municipal employees spearheaded a campaign to decertify Service Employees International Union, Local 721, which was recognized by the state at the time as the exclusive representative for their bargaining unit and replace it with PEAPS. The workers’ stated grievances with SEIU included dissatisfaction with members’ money being spent on disagreeable politics.

While PEAPS successfully decertified SEIU and took over representation of the employees, it never thought to make sure former SEIU members agreed to join the new union and, by extension, fund its politics. Instead, PEAPS simply directed the City to deduct dues from the paychecks of any employee who was previously an SEIU member. In California, government employers must withhold dues from any of their employees the union tells them to. 

Apparently nobody in the new union, or its lawyer, was up to date on how the First Amendment works.

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in the landmark case of Janus v. AFSCME that, in order for public-sector labor unions to divert money from employees’ lawfully earned wages for use in political speech, the employee must have waived his or her First Amendment right to refuse. 

This waiver, in turn, requires a standard of “affirmative consent.” 

This kind of affirmative consent cannot be something passive or assumed. Instead, it must be “clear and compelling” evidence the employee knew he or she was waiving their rights, had sufficient information to do so, and was not coerced.

Simply put, a union must meet a very high bar in order to take a public employee’s money for use in politics. The problem for PEAPS is it didn’t even try.

Julie Osburn, a longtime Palm Springs municipal employee and former member of SEIU 721, never joined PEAPS or authorized the union to divert her lawfully earned wages for use in political speech. But the union did so anyway.

PEAPS simply relied on its power under state law to take Osburn’s money for years and use it to fund the union’s political speech without her affirmative consent. In December 2023, Osburn decided, with Freedom Foundation’s help, to fight back. 

The group’s attorneys prepared and sent a letter to PEAPS president, Sandee Bosler, informing her of the union’s potentially unconstitutional conduct, and asking for proof Osburn had ever joined PEAPS or authorized dues deductions.

Even after having asked for more time to search for her nonexistent union card, PEAPS was unable to produce any documentation on Osburn’s behalf. 

Unfazed, PEAPS offered to refund Osburn the money already spent on political speech without her affirmative consent and to release her from a union membership to which she never agreed. While these concessions were warranted given the situation, they did nothing to address the injuries incurred to Osburn’s First Amendment rights.

Osburn and her lawyers warned the union that it was on the verge of being sued in federal court. Only then did PEAPS decide to enter into negotiations for a settlement befitting the union’s offense.

Rather than file a lawsuit that would have resulted in bankrupting PEAPS through attorneys fees and other potential costs, Osburn agreed to settle for a refund of the money taken without her affirmative consent, a payment of compensatory damages for the injuries to her constitutional rights, and a personal apology letter from Bosler acknowledging PEAPS’ unconstitutional conduct. 

Additionally, the union wisely agreed to pay for Osburn’s attorneys’ fees. 

In a March 20 email to PEAPS members, Bosler unsuccessfully attempted to control the narrative by telling members how much money the union saved by settling with Osburn. However, Bosler noted that the union’s attorney conceded “the law is clear,” and even if the union could have afforded to fight the case, it did not have a legal leg to stand on.

Several years ago, while PEAPS was fighting to replace SEIU, the new board promised Palms Springs area municipal employees that the proposed union would stay strictly on the straight and narrow while keeping members’ best interests at heart.

It failed to keep either promise.