Last week, AFL-CIO bosses viciously accused the grassroots citizens who are increasingly alarmed about unfolding Big Government power grabs (and who are expressing their legitimate concerns at Congressional town hall meetings on government run health care) of orchestrating "extremist disruptions" in coordination with "a growing number of health care reform opponents, including Republican leaders trying to kill President Obama’s reform initiatives."

AFL-CIO operatives are convinced that these so-called "extremist disruptions" are meant "to kill health care reform, not debate it, not refine it, not find a middle ground, just kill it."

Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer and heir apparent to AFL-CIO chieftain John Sweeney, had this to say:

"Mob rule is not a democracy. People have a democratic right to express themselves and our elected leaders have a right to hear from their constituents -- not organized thugs whose sole purpose is to shut down the conversation and attempt to scare our leaders into inaction."

Such over-the-top hyperbole might be dismissed if it didn't come from someone who makes his living coercing and intimidating. After all, union bosses are the ones known for intimidating and shouting-down people who refuse to toe the union line. When anyone questions Big Labor's government-granted special privileges, union bosses frequently resort to intimidation, harassment, or worse to end the discussion.

And Trumka himself has tacitly endorsed such thuggery. Here's how he responded to reports of UMW union violence against independent-minded workers:

"I'm saying if you strike a match and put your finger in, common sense tells you you're going to burn your finger."

The presumptive AFL-CIO president Trumka isn't the only culprit, of course. When California teachers Judy Liegmann and Jeralee Smith spoke out against forced union dues for politics, union bosses rounded up a mob of union toughs to shout down and intimidate them.  As Ms. Liegmann and Ms. Smith bravely announced their opposition to funding union political activism, union militants chanted "shame on you" while other Big Labor goons booed and hurled insults. This sounds like REAL "extremist disruption" to me. 

In case you missed it, earlier this month the Washington Examiner reported that from 2005 to 2008, Big Labor's big money boys have funneled nearly $10 million from forced-dues-fueled union treasuries to the scandal-ridden Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (popularly known as "ACORN") and its affiliates.

According to the report, leading the way is the scandal-plauged Service Employees International Union (SEIU), doling out a whopping $7.4 million; followed by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the Longshore and Warehouse Union, the Communication Workers of America (CWA), and the National Education Association (NEA) unions. The Examiner also notes:

SEIU Locals 100 and 880 were listed as allied organizations on ACORN’s web site until The Examiner highlighted this connection.

LM-2’s show over $600,000 in contributions between these SEIU locals and other ACORN operations. A 2007 LM-2 form shows SEIU Local 880, which is active in Illinois and Minnesota, donated $60,118 to ACORN for "membership services." Organized labor has kicked it back in the form of gifts and grants to ACORN totaling $2.4 million, according to the disclosure forms.

ACORN activists have participated in highly aggressive, well-coordinated anti-corporate campaigns across the country unofficially called “Muscle for Money” funded by SEIU.

In other words, SEIU union kingpins shelled out top dollar for ACORN activists to conduct corporate shakedown campaigns, with tactics that include crashing business meetings and harassing company officials and their families at their own homes, to extract corporate donations and intimidate employers into accepting the Big Labor syndicate's compulsory unionism agenda (which prominently includes forcing the companies' workers into union ranks).

One must wonder if the workers who are "represented" by SEIU union bosses are even aware that their dues are funding a "mob-style 'protection' racket."

To learn about your rights, including your right to opt out of paying union dues which union bosses use on non-bargaining activities such as union politics, lobbying, and member-only events, please check out the Foundation's "Know Your Rights" page here.

Truck Drivers and Dockworkers Fight Back Against Teamster Union Intimidation

Employees seek to throw out union after union bosses’ ugly campaign of harassment and coercion

Seattle, Washington (March 5, 2009) — Employees from nine collective bargaining units of Oak Harbor Freight Lines, Inc. have filed decertification petitions seeking elections to oust the Teamster union as the workers’ monopoly bargaining agent.

With help from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, the employees – drivers and dockworkers – filed the decertification petitions with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking secret ballot elections to determine whether the workforce wants to retain the Teamster union as their monopoly bargaining agent.

On September 22, 2008, Teamster union brass called a strike against Oak Harbor Freight. Teamster union operatives picketed Oak Harbor Freight’s clients with the goal of discouraging them from doing business with the company. Teamster union bosses sought publicly to damage Oak Harbor Freight’s reputation and openly celebrated when clients refused to do further business with the company.

Teamster union bosses organized a subsequent campaign of intimidation and harassment of Oak Harbor Freight employees who continued to work during the strike. Teamster union partisans participated in ambulatory strikes, in which they stalked and picketed Oak Harbor Freight drivers on their daily routes.

(Continue reading this news release...)

That's what one person commented on YouTube about our latest video. Though sad, the sentiment is indicative of the mind set that led to such hostility against the employees in the video that simply exercised their Right to Work.

Unfortunately, history shows that it gets even worse.

Though it's pretty PG-rated compared to what else has gone on around the UAW strike in Virginia, a local employee called in to say that she has been allowed to press charges against a UAW picketer for spitting tobacco onto her car windshield and obstructing her view.

The incident occurred last week when the employee was slowly driving through a swarm of belligerent UAW union picketers on her way to work. Employees have reported this was no picnic, with many picketers hurling obscenities and making obscene gestures at female employees.

Though there are far more and far uglier alleged union reprisals against non-striking employees that need to be investigated, today's news comes as a step in the right direction.

When the Volvo strike that we've covered heavily over the past week came to an end Saturday, one non-striking Volvo employee reports that she received an anonymous "congratulatory" phone call late that night.

When the employee answered the phone, the caller reported the tally of the vote to end the strike and reportedly said:

"Congratulations, you f***ing scab!"

It's because of such hostility that the National Right to Work Foundation again acted on behalf of employees in the area today, seeking information about employee reports that police refused to protect them from union vandalism and harassment.

In case you missed it yesterday, the National Right to Work Foundation is asking for an investigation into reports from employees that local police may have turned a blind eye to union harassment of non-striking workers at Volvo in Pulaski County, Virginia.

Meanwhile, employees continue to contact us with stories of what's been going on during the strike. Some employees report that in addtion to what has already been reported, they believe that union operatives have stalked them, collected their license plate numbers, and slashed their tires.

Again, employees seeking free legal aid can contact the Foundation toll-free at (800) 336-3600.

(Photo by Larry Middleton)

More reports of alleged union inimidation of employees during a strike at Volvo near Roanoke, Virginia, are pouring out today, including a news story by WDBJ-TV. The video report also shows a makeshift coffin put up outside the union hall with an arrow pointing into it and reading "All Scabs Welcome Here."

The report also quotes several employees:

"I expected them to call me a scab. I expected that," says Volvo worker Dreama Domniguez. "What I didn't expect was some of the men that I sorta admired, thought they were descent people, to grope themselves as I drove by."

The employees go on to detail reports we cited yesterday about a broken car window, nails in their driveways, and sugar in a gas tank.

"It scared me but the more I thought about it, it made me angry and if I had to walk over those nails to get into work I would have done it," says Domniguez.

All these brave employees did was show up to work. Sadly, while this situation has gained some attention, the National Institute for Labor Relations Research says that the vast majority of instances of union violence (including both physical and property damage) go unprosecuted.

Think that union intimidation is a thing of the past? You might think again.

WSLS-TV out of Roanoke, Virginia, shows in a video report that nonunion Volvo employees in the Roanoke, Virginia, area claim they're being singled out for continuing to work during a United Auto Workers union-ordered strike.

Multiple reports of nails in employees' driveways, sugar in the gas tank of a car, "scab live here" signs in their yards, and a broken window of one of a worker's car have surfaced. One worker also reported being followed home after work.

While the local UAW union head says "I don't know if it did happen or didn't happen..." it's a disgrace if employees are being singled out simply for going to work.

Any employee wanting to know their rights should immediately contact the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation toll-free at 1-800-336-3600 or email legal@nrtw.org.