Columbus, OH – On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute filed its appeal brief in Vanderveer v. Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) with Ohio’s Sixth District Court of Appeals, calling on the court to reverse the lower court’s dismissal of the case and end the union’s wage theft practices. The Buckeye Institute represents Katrina Vanderveer of Wauseon, Ohio, in Vanderveer v. OAPSE—one of several union wage theft cases brought by The Buckeye Institute.

“Mrs. Vanderveer has ended her membership in the government union. This fact is not in dispute,” said Jay R. Carson, senior litigator at The Buckeye Institute and an attorney representing Mrs. Vanderveer. “What is in dispute is whether the courthouse doors are open to Mrs. Vanderveer—and other Ohioans—to bring her case and end the union’s illegal wage theft.”

In its appeal of Vanderveer v. OAPSE, The Buckeye Institute argues that the lower court erred 1) in dismissing Mrs. Vanderveer’s case, declaring it is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the State Employment Relations Board; and 2) in closing the courthouse doors to Mrs. Vanderveer. Buckeye argues that the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision in Ohio Council 8, AFSCME, AFL-CIO v. Lakewood, unambiguously reaffirmed that Ohio’s Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act does not strip courts of their jurisdiction over private contractual disputes, and that the Ohio Constitution’s Open Courts Provision requires that Mrs. Vanderveer be given her day in court.

Read more of Mrs. Vanderveer’s story and stay up-to-date on Vanderveer v. OAPSE at BuckeyeInstitute.org/VanderveervOAPSE. 

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