Columbus, OH – The Buckeye Institute continues to stand up for public employees who have decided to exercise their constitutional rights and quit the government union. In a new lawsuit—this one against the National Education Association, Ohio Education Association, and the Poland Education Association—The Buckeye Institute is demanding that the union stop charging union dues to Buckeye’s client Beth Queen, a science teacher at Poland Seminary High School, in Poland, Ohio. Queen v. NEA was filed in Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas.

“For years, Ms. Queen was happy with her union representation. So, imagine her surprise when she learned that the union had negotiated away part of Ms. Queen’s pay,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute and an attorney representing Ms. Queen. “Not only did the union negotiate lower pay for Ms. Queen, but even though she quit the union, it keeps taking money from her for doing so.”

For more than 30 years, Beth Queen has been a high school science teacher, teaching students at Poland Seminary High School for 26 years. She didn’t set out to be a teacher. Ms. Queen started her career in pharmaceutical sales, but now, she happily spends her days teaching ninth-grade biology, anatomy, and physiology and college-level students biology (conducted through an agreement with Youngstown State University). 

Happy with the union representation for most of her teaching career, Ms. Queen was a member of multiple unions in multiple districts for decades, even serving on union committees. That was until the Poland Education Association negotiated away part of Ms. Queen’s pay. Currently, any Poland biology teacher who teaches college courses for Youngstown State University receives a stipend for the extra courses. Ms. Queen was one of Poland’s teachers who took on this additional work, teaching biology courses and the associated lab courses that are required. 

In the new collective bargaining agreement that will take effect in September 2025, the union approved the removal of the stipend that paid for teachers to teach the required biology labs. In effect, the union agreed to a cut in pay for science teachers even though they would teach the same number of courses. Not only did the union agree to cut Ms. Queen’s pay by nearly $9,000, but they didn’t talk to her—or the other science teacher who taught the course—about the possibility of a pay cut, and the union didn’t tell teachers that it was a part of the new collective bargaining agreement until it was time for teachers to vote on the agreement.

In Queen v. NEA, The Buckeye Institute is asking the court to order the government union to:

• Stop charging Ms. Queen’s credit card for union dues;
• Refund the money taken from her after she quit the government union; 
• Issue an injunction to prevent further union membership dues charges to her credit card; and
• Award Ms. Queen’s court costs.

Stay up-to-date on Queen v. NEA at BuckeyeInstitute.org/QueenvNEA.

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