SEIU Bosses Threaten to Have Workers Fired for Refusing to Sign Union Cards

Employees hit service union officials with federal charges for coercing employees during ugly card check unionization drive

Pittsfield, IL (May 7, 2010) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, four Pittsfield-based Help at Home employees have filed federal unfair labor practice charges against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for threatening workers with termination if they refused to sign union authorization cards.

The cards, which the employer counted as “votes” in favor of unionization, were then used to force employees to accept SEIU officials as their exclusive bargaining agents at the Pittsfield Help at Home office.

Tina Evans and three of her Help at Home coworkers allege that employees were unlawfully compelled to attend a mass meeting with union organizers during work hours. Independent-minded workers who opposed unionization were also threatened with layoffs if they did not sign union authorization cards. Despite lacking the un-coerced support of a majority of employees, SEIU bosses have now made the payment of union dues a condition of employment for workers at the Pittsfield Help at Home office.

The union involved in this organizing scheme – SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana – is a chronic offender. Officials from the same union are facing Foundation-assisted charges in Danville, Illinois for illegally forcing other nonunion Help at Home employees to pay full union dues. The union was also named in a Foundation lawsuit on behalf of Illinois home care providers, who allege that union officials collaborated with Governor Pat Quinn to force them into the SEIU’s dues-paying ranks.

The Foundation’s charges seek immediate injunctive relief for Help at Home employees forced to pay SEIU dues. The charges will now be investigated by the National Labor Relations Board.

“Given the union’s history of workplace abuses, I can’t say we’re surprised by this latest scheme,” said Patrick Semmens, legal information director of the National Right to Work Foundation. “It’s unconscionable that union operatives would use threats to foist themselves on unwilling workers.”

“These tactics also highlight the dangers of pending ‘card check’ legislation, which would effectively mandate the coercive card check organizing system,” continued Semmens. “Without the privacy of the ballot booth during unionization elections, workers are regularly subjected to intimidation and harassment at the hands of aggressive union organizers.”