Education union agrees to settle with Poland science teacher
The Ohio Education Association agreed to settle a dispute with a longtime science teacher in Poland who was charged union dues despite seeking to opt out of a union agreement.
Beth Queen teaches ninth-grade biology, anatomy, and physiology at Poland Seminary High School and also teaches college-level biology at Youngstown State University, according to a news release. She has taught school science for more than 30 years, including 26 years at Poland Seminary High School.
Queen, who receives a stipend for extra courses she teaches at Youngstown State University, had no issue with the Poland Education Association’s representation for much of her career in the classroom. She was a member of multiple unions in multiple districts for decades and has served on union committees.
However, starting in the 2025-2026 school year, as part of a new collective bargaining agreement, the union eliminated the stipend that paid for teachers to teach the requisite biology labs. The move will cost Queen nearly $9,000.
As a result, Queen opted to quit the Poland Education Association and its affiliates, the Ohio Education Association and the National Education Association. According to the think tank, the union acknowledges Queen is not a member any longer, having left in February, but it declined to stop charging her credit card.
Queen, represented by the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute, a think tank dedicated to advancing free-market public policy in the states, filed a lawsuit in June in the Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas.
In the lawsuit, the Buckeye Institute requested that the court order the union to cease charging Queen’s credit card for union dues, despite her having quit the government union. It also requested that the court hand down an injunction to block additional union membership dues charges to her credit card and award Queen’s court costs.
The union initially suggested it had the right to charge Queen, citing a dues deduction card Queen signed in 2005, WFMJ-TV reported.
“With this settlement, the OEA properly recognized Ms. Queen’s claims and avoided costly and protracted litigation for all involved,” Jay R. Carson, senior litigator at The Buckeye Institute and an attorney representing Queen, said in a release.
The filing follows the 2018 Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME. In that decision, justices ruled that limiting the window to stop paying mandatory union dues is an illegal restriction on First Amendment rights.
“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,” David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute and an attorney representing Queen, said in a release after the case was filed. “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.”
The case, Queen v. NEA, is one of several similar cases the think tank has filed against the Ohio Association of Public School Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Among the cases is one that the think tank filed on behalf of a school custodian who sued after the union continued to deduct dues from his paycheck, even after he quit the union because, in part, he objected to its “political advocacy.”
In April, the Carroll County Court of Common Pleas granted the Ohio Association of Public School Employees’ motion to dismiss the case. However, the Buckeye Institute filed an appeal with Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals.
