MIT grad student files federal charges over forced dues for politics

Boukin's charges seek enforcement of her rights under the 1988 CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision. This ruling established that even in states without Right to Work protections like Massachusetts, unions cannot compel individuals to pay for expenses unrelated to bargaining activities.

According to Boukin’s charge, GSU officials claim she cannot exercise her Beck rights because she missed a union-created annual "window period," which she asserts is illegal. The GSU had previously settled a similar case agreeing to process students' attempts to exercise their Beck rights properly.

Additionally, MIT graduate students Will Sussman, Joshua Fried, Akiva Gordon, Tamar Kadosh Zhitomirsky, and Adina Bechhofer have filed religious discrimination charges against the GSU with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). They oppose the union's advocacy for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Despite requesting religious exemptions from dues payment as required by law, GSU officials denied these requests.

As of this article's publication date, these EEOC charges remain pending. A federal lawsuit may follow if the union does not cease its alleged illegal discrimination.

“Freedom of association is apparently a foreign concept to GSU union officials who are flouting layers upon layers of federal law to compel students to fund their radical political agenda,” commented National Right to Work Foundation Vice President and Legal Director William Messenger. “However both this case and Foundation attorneys’ cases for the five Jewish MIT graduate students show on a deeper level that the choice to provide support to a union should rest solely with workers who may have sincere religious political or other objections.”