The saga continues, as New York City Marriott officials are facing additional federal charges for trying to force workers to accept local union officials' unwanted "representation" and with it, the obligation of forced dues payments.

Last month, a group of SoHo Marriott workers targeted in a vicious campaign of intimidation and harassment by union organizers and company officials filed federal charges against Marriott and the union with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation.

New York Hotel & Motel Trades Council Local 6 union organizers entered into a backroom deal (called a "neutrality agreement") with company officials. Of course, there is nothing "neutral" about the agreement, which allows union organizers unfettered access to the employees in order to install a union in the workplace while workers who wish to refrain from union affiliation are silenced with threats and punishment.

For example, Marriott worker Coralina Alcantara (who filed the latest around of charges against Marriott last week) and many of her colleagues are prohibited from meeting in the employee break room. Meanwhile, the company's lawyer has been interrogating Coralina and her colleagues and threatening them for wishing to remain free from union boss shackles.

It should come to no surprise that the workers are now unanimously opposed to the union officials' presence in the workplace. The same union officials have used video cameras in employee changing rooms, accessed employee lockers, handled employees' personal possessions, and resorted to verbal abuse against workers. One union official even took photographs of a female employee without her consent while she was changing her uniform in an employee changing room. As reported in the New York Post last month:

Workers at a downtown hotel charge that union goons resorted to outrageous tactics to browbeat them into joining their ranks — going so far as to photograph a female staffer as she changed clothes in an employee locker room, apparently to blackmail her.

"I was wearing my uniform pants and my bra and holding my shirt to put it on when they started snapping pictures," front-desk worker Gisel Rodriguez, 28, recalled of the alleged sneak attack at the SoHo Courtyard Marriott in December.

"I was furious, really didn't know what to do," she said. "They said, 'We're allowed to be here,' and clicked away."

Rodriguez said she believes the union reps wanted to use the photos "as blackmail, to get us to sign."

SEIU and Hospital Officials Hit With Federal Charges for Rigging Union Card Check 'Vote'

Union organizers enter into corrupt agreement with hospital to force healthcare workers into union ranks using coercive card check tactics

Orange, California (February 13, 2012) – A healthcare worker has filed federal charges against a major healthcare union and hospital officials for illegally rigging a union organizing "vote" and then forcing workers to accept an unwanted union in the workplace.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Marlene Felter of Costa Mesa filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Workers West union officials and Chapman Medical Center management entered into a backroom deal known as a so-called "neutrality agreement" designed to grease the skids for workers to be forced into union ranks.

In the agreement, company officials granted union operatives access to company facilities to conduct a coercive "card check" organizing campaign, and waived the right to have a federally-supervised secret ballot election to determine whether employees wished to be unionized. Union organizers frequently use "card check" organizing tactics to bribe, browbeat, or cajole workers into forced-union-dues payments against their will.

Read the entire press release here.

AFSCME Union Bosses Hit With Federal Charges for Illegally Ordering Hospital Employee Fired

Union officials demand worker be fired for exercising Constitutionally-protected right to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership

Saint Paul, Minnesota (February 13, 2012) – A Regions Hospital switchboard operator filed a federal charge against a local union for threatening to fire her for exercising her right to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Rebecca Holt recently filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 722 union bosses demanded Holt sign an "Authorization of Payroll Deduction" form authorizing union officials to deduct full union dues from her paycheck. Holt requested information about her rights, including her right to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership.

Because Minnesota does not have Right to Work protections for its workers, employees can be forced to pay a part of union dues as a condition of employment.

Read the entire press release here.

Worker Advocate Launches Legal Task Force to Protect Indiana Right to Work Freedom

Law prevents union officials from extracting union dues from workers as a condition of employment

Washington, DC (February 2, 2012) – The National Right to Work Foundation announced today that it is launching a legal task force aimed at protecting Indiana’s newly-enacted Right to Work law.

Union officials publicly floated the idea of challenging the law in Indiana's courts before the law was even passed by the Indiana state senate.

Indiana is the nation's 23rd Right to Work state after the state senate passed the bill and Governor Mitch Daniels signed the bill into law on Wednesday.

Foundation attorneys have successfully defended state Right to Work laws in the past, including Oklahoma's. The task force has already examined reported union lines of attack and determined that Indiana’s Right to Work law is on sound legal ground.

"Union bosses want to undo what thousands of Hoosier citizens have worked hard for over the past decade," said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. "Because union partisans cannot win the hearts and minds of Indiana's workers and voters, they seek to have the courts strike down Indiana’s popular Right to Work law for them."

Read the entire press release here.

Right to Work Foundation Attorneys Move to Disqualify Controversial Recess Appointees from Six Cases

Argue Labor Board does not have legitimate quorum to hear pending cases

Washington, DC (January 30, 2012) – Today, National Right to Work Foundation attorneys filed motions with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to disqualify President Barack Obama's recent purported recess appointees to the agency from participating in the Foundation's six cases pending before the Board.

Foundation attorneys argue that the appointments are unconstitutional and, therefore, the Board lacks the quorum necessary to hear Foundation cases. This legal challenge is part of an ongoing controversy over the constitutionality of Obama's recent move to install three members to the NLRB as "recess appointees" despite the fact that the U.S. Senate was not in recess.

Foundation attorneys also were among the first to challenge the constitutionality of Obama's "recess appointments" in federal court. An earlier motion challenging the appointments, filed by the Foundation and other plaintiffs challenging the NLRB’s notice posting rules, is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Read the entire release here.

Read one of the Foundation attorneys' motions to disqualify the "recess appointees" here.

Right to Work Foundation Announces New Addition to Legal Team

Regent-trained attorney dedicated to the cause of individual liberty for America's workers

Washington, DC (January 30, 2012) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has hired Sarah Hartsfield of Austin, Texas, as an addition to its legal staff.

Hartsfield is a recently sworn in member of the Virginia State Bar and 2011 graduate of the Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

"Sarah brings to the Foundation a real commitment to defending and advancing individual liberty against the injustices of compulsory unionism," said Ray LaJeunesse, vice president and legal director of the National Right to Work Foundation.

Read the entire release here.