Wisnewski v. SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania

The Fairness Center represents Alan Wisnewski, a forensic registered nurse at SCI-Waymart State Prison. Mr. Wisnewski has sued SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania (“SEIU”), which he’s forced to accept as his representative in collective bargaining, claiming that SEIU officials told him he could not vote on a new contract because he would not sign a new union card, even though he was already a union member. Mr. Wisnewski alleges in his state court lawsuit that an SEIU official told him that if he wanted to vote on contract ratification, he had to sign a new union card. But the new union card contained language that purported to prevent those who signed from ending the deduction of union dues from their wages except for one fifteen-day window a year. Contrary to the union official’s statement to Mr. Wisnewski, he in fact already had the right to vote on the contract according to SEIU’s own rules and membership contract, because he was already a union member. Mr. Wisnewski alleges, however, that SEIU officials did not give him the chance to vote on the new contract even when SEIU allowed other members to vote.