As explained in the court’s opinion (Hudson v. American Federation of Government Employees (DDC Civil Action No. 17-1867 (JEB), 11/16/17)), the union originally removed Mr. Hudson from his position to which he was voted by the union membership because it took issue with an email blast he sent out to numerous union members using AFGE resources.
He was charged with violating the union constitution and the matter was referred to the National Executive Committee (NEC), which just so happened to be chaired by NVP Gerald Swanke, an official who previously had filed another complaint against Hudson. Mr. Hudson objected to Mr. Swanke’s participation as it led to “a significant risk of actual bias” against Hudson. Undeterred, the NEC met, found Hudson guilty of three violations of the union constitution and ordered him removed from his national office.
Hudson took his case to the district court, seeking an injunction against the AFGE removing him from his national office. The court was persuaded by Hudson’s challenge that AFGE was in violation of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act’s requirement that a full and fair hearing was required before a union may discipline a member.
t as an officer of AFGE he has the right to be in on. “Any inconvenience to AFGE is thus outweighed by this hardship to Plaintiff.” (p. 5)
Stay tuned.
