SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A Catholic public school teacher has taken his union to court for denying his request to redirect dues in accordance with his religious objection to the union's support of abortion.

In a suit filed last month in Massachusetts federal district court, Gerard O'Brien, a special education instructor in the Springfield school system, claims the right to a “reasonable accommodation” under the equal employment section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The federal case is the latest step in O'Brien's prolonged dispute with the Springfield Education Association going back to1988. He alleges the union has denied his request while at the same time allowing a teacher who is a Seventh Day Adventist to redirect dues to a mutually agreed-upon charity.

A fellow Catholic teacher who began his petition with O'Brien and is now retired also was granted permission to donate his union dues to a charity.

The alleged disparity of treatment, and his determination to withhold support for abortion, drive O'Brien's legal action. He has been paying his union fees into an escrow account over the years as the dispute continues.

“I don't think in my conscience that as a Catholic you're supposed to support abortion,” he explained.

The Springfield Education Association is an affiliate of the Massachusetts Education Association, which is affiliated with the National Education Association. Section I-12 of the NEA's 2001-2002 Resolutions states, “The National Education Association supports family planning, including the right to reproductive freedom.”

Union Hardball

O'Brien's lawyer, Gregory Hession, said that the union has played hardball with his client to discourage other Catholics.

“We'll win this case if it gets to a jury,” he said. “But even if we do, the union has made such an example of Mr. O'Brien that no one else is going to try to go his route. It's only because his motives are pure that he has been able to continue.”

O'Brien said that when he first began putting his dues in escrow, union officials insisted that he was acting for political and not religious reasons because no other Catholics had objected.

“That's a common tactic,” commented Dan Cronin of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The unions will say that this isn't religious, that it's some right-wing political group trying to target them.”

Cronin's group defended O'Brien's former coworker, Ed Lundrigan, who retired in 1994 and was allowed to pay his dues to charity. “I was willing to go all the way on this,” Lundrigan said. “The more they tried to stop me, the more determined I was.”

Although not a member of the teachers'union, O'Brien, along with other non-members, is required to pay an “agency fee” for the benefits he receives from the education association's collective bargaining. The fee, slightly less than normal dues, is supposed to pay only for the union's jobrelated activities and not for political advocacy.

But O'Brien's lawyer says that the distinction does not hold since most of the dues and fees go toward bringing union delegates to conventions where such things as abortion support are approved. “My client is not opposed to unions,” Hession stated. “But 90% of the cash is going to support the issues he doesn't agree with.”

Union president Tim Collins said that the Springfield Education Association has offered O'Brien all he is entitled to. The union gave O'Brien the option of donating the money in escrow and all future dues to a charity, but required that he pay his legal fees from the same account. The arrangement was approved by the state's discrimination commission.

O'Brien rejected the offer, arguing that the union should reimburse his legal expenses since it should have granted his request at the outset.

“The legal fees would in effect wipe out the whole escrow account,” said Hession, who added that the union should pay for the trouble it has caused O'Brien in defending his civil rights.

Collins insisted that his union does not support abortion or condom distribution, but did admit that money goes to conventions where such issues are voted on. He also said that O'Brien's stance is inconsistent. Tax money goes more directly to support abortion, he said, yet “I don't see him withholding state and federal taxes.”

Case law backs O'Brien, Hession said. A 1990 federal court decision in Michigan favored a Catholic university professor who did not want to pay dues to a union that sought to oust a pro-life judge. The court ruled that the professor could divert his dues to a charity.

And in 1996, a federal court in up-state New York said that a Catholic worker's dispute with the union could only be redressed by allowing the employee to direct his whole fee to an acceptable charity, and not only that part deemed to pay for political activity.

Moral Support

O'Brien has gotten moral support and legal advice from others who have won similar cases. Barbara Wolfe of Montana told him, “Hang in there. There's nothing wrong with being right.”

A Catholic public school teacher, Wolfe won the right in that state's highest court in 1992 to donate her dues to charity. “Joining the National Education Association or any of its affiliates would violate my beliefs because of their support of abortion,” she said.

Kevin Hasson, president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said that it appears to be an open-and-shut case for O'Brien. The law is clear that union members are entitled to a religious accommodation, and case law shows that they are allowed to donate dues to an mutually acceptable charity, he stated.

A spokesman for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, which represents the state's bishops, said that the organization has not studied the case, but in general it supports Catholics defending their faith.

“Freedom of conscience is a freedom that is imperiled in so many ways today, not only in employee-union relations,” said Daniel Avila, associate director of research and policy. “There are laws being enacted in many legislatures that would seek to force Catholic individual and institutions to violate their personal or institutional conscience. This can only be seen as a dangerous trend.”

Brian Caulfield writes from West Haven, Conn.