13 Former Giant Foods Employees Hit Union with Federal Charges for Unlawful Retaliatory Fines

**Landover, MD (May 10, 2007)** – A group of 13 ex-employees of Giant Foods, Inc. filed federal charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against two Carpenter union affiliates for failing to inform the employees of their rights and fining them $2,500 each after working for a nonunion employer. The employees worked under union monopoly contracts for over 20 years without union officials informing them of their rights.

Led by Clark Bowling, all 13 are former metal workers at Giant’s Landover warehouse where they performed various jobs for the Mid-Atlantic area grocery chain. Attorneys from the National Right to Work Foundation helped Bowling and his coworkers file the charges after officials from the Millwrights and Machinery Erectors Local 1548 and Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters (MARCC) unions told the employees they were required to be full union members. Union officials then levied retaliatory fines after the employees went to work for nonunion employers.

Union officials demanded that the workers join the Carpenter union affiliates despite failing to inform the employees of their right to refrain from formal union membership and to withhold all forced dues except those spent on union monopoly bargaining.

After the Giant warehouse closed in August 2005, Bowling and his coworkers were unemployed for weeks before securing new employment. Upon learning the workers had chosen a nonunion employer, union officials imposed internal union disciplinary fines against the employees despite the fact that they were not voluntary members of the union.

“It’s despicable for union officials to drive workers towards the poor house, especially after they failed to protect their jobs from being eliminated,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “In states like Maryland, with no Right to Work law that makes payment of union dues strictly voluntary, union officials seem to have a tremendous sense of entitlement to workers’ wages.”

In the Foundation-won *Communication Workers of America v. Beck* decision in 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employees laboring under the National Labor Relations Act are entitled to resign from formal union membership and withhold forced dues for activities other than union monopoly bargaining such as union political activities and organizing. And only truly voluntary union members can be subjected to internal union discipline, such as fines.

Federal Labor Board to Prosecute Union for Illegal Firing of Catholic University Grounds Keeper

**Washington, DC (May 3, 2007)** – Following unfair labor practice charges filed by Catholic University employee Jerry Evans, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has agreed to prosecute the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) for forcing Evans’ firing.

Evans, a grounds keeper/landscape technician at Catholic, originally filed charges against the union and the university in January 2007 with help from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys. Now, after investigating those charges, the NLRB Region 5 Director in Baltimore has issued a complaint against the union for initiating the illegal firing and violating Evans’ due process rights.

In early November 2006, union officials demanded that Evans pay a $100 “initiation fee” and then pay $259 in dues. When Evans did not immediately pay, IUOE union officials sent a letter to Catholic University demanding that Evans be terminated, despite the fact that union officials failed to notify him of his right to refrain from formal union membership and failed to provide an adequate breakdown of how they would be spending Evans’ forced dues.

In 1988, National Right to Work Foundation attorneys argued and won *Communication Workers of America v. Beck*, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employees are entitled to resign or refrain from formal union membership and cannot be forced to pay for costs unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activities or organizing. The decision also requires union officials to provide employees with verified financial disclosure of union expenditures, so that employees can cut off the seizure of forced union dues used for such activities.

Despite the long-standing *Beck* ruling, union agents sent Catholic University a letter demanding that Evans be fired only a few days after they had demanded that he pay the unsubstantiated forced dues. Because of union officials’ illegal termination request, Evans has been out of work for nearly 5 months.

“Time and time again, union officials send workers to the poorhouse unless they fork over money to the union,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “It is sickening for union officials to threaten the livelihood of employees who refuse to toe the union line.”

In the wake of the NLRB charges, union officials backtracked and sent a letter to Catholic asking that Evans be rehired – presumably to limit the amount of back wages that union officials would be liable for due to the illegal firing. However, Evans is not yet back on the job, and the NLRB has set a hearing date for July 23 to prosecute the union.

Download the NLRB Complaint

Acura Employees Hit Union with Federal Charges for Threatening Firings for Refusal to Pay Fines

**Pleasanton, CA (May 2, 2007)** – Two employees of Acura of Pleasanton filed a new round of federal unfair labor practice charges today to protect themselves from repeated threats against their jobs and hundreds of dollars in unlawful retaliatory union fines.

Rachel Warner of Livermore and Marco Llamas of Modesto, both parts technicians at the auto dealership, filed the charges with help from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys against the International Union of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Local 1546. Warner and Llamas filed the charges after union officials threatened them with the fines and termination simply for exercising their limited legal rights to refrain from formal union membership. The employees filed the charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which will now investigate and decide whether to prosecute the union.

Warner and Llamas detail in their charge how union officials sent letters threatening them with termination and the fines despite the fact that they are not bound by internal union rules as nonmembers. (Both letters are viewable at: www.nrtw.org/pdfs/warner-llamas.pdf)

Warner and Llamas also allege that the union has violated its so-called “duty of fair representation” through the arbitrary and discriminatory nature of the fines.

“Union officials are trampling the very rights of the employees they claim to represent,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Such union abuse of employee rights is rampant in California because there is no Right to Work law which would prohibit forced unionism.”

Warner and Llamas filed similar unfair labor practice charges in early January, after union officials unlawfully rejected their letters resigning formal union membership, in violation of the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court *Communication Workers of America v. Beck* decision.

In the *Beck* decision, the High Court ruled that employees laboring under compulsory unionism contracts are entitled to resign from formal union membership and withhold forced dues for everything except the documented cost of monopoly bargaining. Such workers have the right to cut off the use of their forced dues by union officials for activities such as union political activities and organizing.

Download the threatening letters

Hilton Employee Hits Recalcitrant Union with Federal Charges for Continued Misuse of Forced Union Dues

**Honolulu, HI (May 1, 2007)** – With help from attorneys at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Grant Suzuki, an employee at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel, filed federal charges after union officials failed to provide proper financial expenditures disclosure – an employee’s right to safeguard his forced union dues against political use.

Suzuki, an electrician for Hilton (NYSE: HLT), sent his annual objection to the collection of his forced dues for politics to UNITE-HERE union officials in November 2006. In his letter, Suzuki also reiterated his request for a legally mandated financial disclosure of the union’s expenditures. Because union officials never responded to Suzuki’s request and failed to produce any financial records disclosing the use of his forced dues, Foundation attorneys filed unfair labor practice charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

“In states like Hawaii were there is no Right to Work law making union affiliation strictly voluntary, union officials expect employees to shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “UNITE-HERE union officials are undermining the rights of the very employees they claim to represent.”

In the Foundation-won *Communications Workers v. Beck* case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employees are entitled to resign from formal union membership and cannot be forced to pay for costs unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activity or organizing. The precedent also requires union officials to provide employees with verified financial disclosure of union expenditures, so that employees can intelligently decide to cut off the seizure of their forced union dues for such activities.

Hilton employees who have refrained from formal union membership have been subject to the UNITE-HERE union officials’ monopoly bargaining agreement in the past, which included a compulsory unionism clause requiring the employees to pay into strike funds for strikes in unrelated industries. After Suzuki filed unfair labor practice charges in 2006 for his coworkers, the NLRB agreed to prosecute UNITE-HERE union officials for violating workers’ rights.

In July 2006, Suzuki’s charge forced UNITE-HERE union officials to ink a settlement agreement that prohibited the use of employees’ forced union dues for strikes outside the immediate geographical area. Suzuki also forced UNITE-HERE union officials to post notices in the hotel notifying workers of their legal rights, and to create a separate fund from nonmembers to be used only on strikes in hotel bargaining units in Hawaii. Today, Suzuki is still appealing that settlement to end the collection of all forced dues for strikes, regardless of location.

Safeway Employee Hits Butte-Based UFCW Union with Federal Charges for Illegal Threats and Dues Seizures

**Butte, MT (April 25, 2007)** – A local employee of Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY) filed federal charges against the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 4 union to protect himself and his coworkers from illegal seizures of forced union dues from their paychecks.

Gerald Rasmussen, a meatcutter at the Polson Safeway, filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with help from attorneys at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The charges cite that UFCW Local 4 union officials are attempting to enforce a compulsory unionism clause requiring employees to join or pay dues to the union or be fired from their jobs, despite a formal employee election recently stripping them of their forced unionism privileges.

All 34 Safeway employees participated in the NLRB-supervised deauthorization election – a secret ballot vote that gives employees the right to eliminate the compulsory dues clause from a monopoly bargaining contract. However, emboldened by the fact the Montana is not yet a Right to Work state, UFCW Local 4 union officials are challenging the election results and continue to claim that Rasmussen and his coworkers must join or pay dues to the union or they could be fired.

After learning of his right to resign from formal union membership from sources independent of UFCW Local 4, Rasmussen and other employees sent letters to union officials resigning from formal union membership.

In response, UFCW union officials rejected the employees’ requests and invented their own bogus and illegal rules, claiming that the grocery employees’ letters were unacceptable because they were not notarized, they were not sent by certified mail in separate envelopes, and were not accompanied by copies of the NLRB decisions and Supreme Court rulings. Additionally, union officials never provided any of the legally-mandated financial disclosure statements to the Safeway employees.

“Union officials have demanded that these employees shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “In states like Montana where there is no Right to Work law to ensure that payment of union dues is strictly voluntary, union officials commonly trample the rights of employees to keep their coffers

In 1988, Foundation attorneys argued and won Communication Workers of America v. Beck, where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employees are entitled to resign from formal union membership and cannot be forced to pay for costs unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activity or organizing. The decision also requires union officials to provide employees with verified financial disclosure of union expenditures, so that employees can cut off the seizure of forced union dues used for such activities.

Union Officials Forced to Drop $5,000 Retaliatory Fines Against Employees Doing Nonunion Work

**Atlanta, GA (April 5, 2007)** — Facing an embarrassing prosecution for their ugly retaliation against independent-minded workers, union officials quickly backtracked and settled federal unfair labor practice charges filed by four employees with free legal help from the National Right to Work Foundation.

The four local commercial insulation workers filed federal charges against International Association of Heat & Frost Insulators Local 48 (IAHFI) with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for refusing to honor their resignations from the union and threatening to fine them $5,000 each in retaliation for choosing to work for a nonunion employer. In fact, union officials filed state court lawsuits against the three non-English speaking employees (Gonzalo Gomez, Ubaldo Romero, and Juan Perez) to collect the unlawful fines.

Under federal law, workers who resign from union membership cannot be lawfully fined by a union – even if the union maintains a formal rule governing the situation, which it did not in this case. In Foundation-supported *Patternmakers v. NLRB* (1984) U.S. Supreme Court decision, the High Court ruled workers may resign their formal union membership immediately, at any time, and without restrictions.

When the four employees inquired about how to exercise their right to resign their union memberships at a recent union meeting, union officials told the workers that they could not resign unless they did so “correctly,” but failed to explain exactly what this meant. When asked later what this meant, union officials replied simply that the employees had failed to resign “correctly.”

Facing a probable prosecution because the fines had no basis even in internal union rules, union officials chose to settle the charges by rescinding the illegal fines and recognizing the workers’ union resignations. Additionally, union officials will be required to post notices at all Atlanta-area construction sites where the union is the monopoly bargaining agent to inform other employees of their rights. The union will also refund $250 plus interest to the fourth worker, Larry Blaisdell, who had been told to pay the money in order to appeal the illegal fine in the internal union kangaroo court.

“Union officials tried to bully workers who simply wanted to support their families by working for one of the many, good non-union employers in Georgia,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “It is a shame that legal action was necessary just to get union bosses to stop violating the rights of the very workers they claim to ‘represent.’”

Union officials’ actions also violated the spirit of Georgia’s highly popular Right to Work law – on the books since 1947 – which prohibits forcing workers to join or pay dues to a union as a job condition.

Security Guard Hits Union with Federal Charges for Threatening Jobs for Refraining from Union Membership

**Corpus Christi, TX (April 3, 2007)** – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a local Asset Protection and Security Services guard filed federal charges against the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA) union and his employer today after union officials unlawfully threatened to have him fired for asserting his legal right to refrain from formal union membership and payment of union dues.

Carlos Banuelos’ charge, filed at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), details how the SPFPA union hierarchy holds an illegal monopoly bargaining agreement with his employer that makes financial support for the union a mandatory condition of employment.

Asset Protection and Security Services (ASSET), an international security provider of armed and unarmed security personnel, enforced its illegal requirement and ordered Banuelos to pay a fee to the union or face termination. However, Texas is one of 22 states that has passed a Right to Work law, ensuring that union membership and dues payment are strictly voluntary.

“Union officials are trampling Texas’ long standing freedom provided under the state’s Right to Work law that makes union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary, ” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The public needs the State’s Attorney General to step in here, because union officials are repeatedly thumbing their noses at Texas’ popular Right to Work law.”

This is the second charge filed within months in Texas where the Foundation has helped an employee fight back against unlawful dues demands from the SPFPA union hierarchy. Juan Vielma, a security guard for AKAL Security in El Paso, prompted the NLRB to issue a formal complaint against the same union for unlawfully suspending him without pay in retaliation for asserting his legal right to refrain from union membership. The NLRB held a related hearing last month, and Vielma and Foundation attorneys are currently awaiting a ruling.

SPFPA union officials are falsely claiming that Vielma, Banuelos, and their colleagues work on federal property that is not protected by the Right to Work law – and thus can be forced to pay union fees as a condition of employment. In the El Paso case, NLRB investigators determined that the union had no proof of these claims, just as they are expected to do in Corpus Christi. Accordingly, the NLRB Regional Director found that the union hierarchy violated federal law by restraining and coercing employees exercising their limited rights under the National Labor Relations Act to refrain from union participation.

Machinist Union Hit with Multiple Federal Charges for Retaliating Against Employees Who Inquired about their Rights

**Cleveland, OH (March 26, 2007)** – Two employees of Alcoa Company (NYSE: AA) filed a new round of federal unfair labor practice charges today to protect themselves from a pattern of ugly union intimidation at the company.

The employees at Alcoa’s trucking wheel manufacturing plant filed the charges with help from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys after officials from the International Union of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) union repeatedly threatened them with unlawful discipline and termination simply for inquiring about their limited legal rights to refrain from formal union membership.

Today’s filing at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is the third related charge filed inside of one month. Alcoa employees Mark Bedenik and Matthew Slatten also detail in their charge how union officials kicked them out of the union in retaliation for inquiring about their rights to refrain from full union membership, but illegally continued to seize union dues from their paychecks.

After Bedenik and Slatten originally approached union representatives in February to inquire about their rights to refrain from formal union membership, union officials unlawfully misled them that full membership is a mandatory condition of employment and that resigning from the union would result in their termination. In retaliation for asserting their right to refrain from certain union activity, union officials effectively suspended six employees from eligibility for overtime work at the Alcoa facility for a period of up to one year. The employees responded with unfair labor practice charges filed at the NLRB.

“Union officials want workers to shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “These are just a few of many types of abuse faced by employees in states like Ohio with no Right to Work law to ensure that the payment of union dues is strictly voluntary.”

In a second related charge filed in early March, Foundation attorneys highlighted that union officials ordered Bedenik and Slatten to attend an IAM union internal kangaroo court held for the purpose of punishing them for inquiring about refraining from full union membership. Instructing the employees to attend the proceedings and only enter through the “rear entrance” of the building, union officials intended to fine and discipline the two for thinking about opposing the union. The employees chose not to show up for their “trial.”

Under the Foundation-won *Communication Workers of America v. Beck* decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employees laboring under compulsory unionism contracts are entitled to resign from formal union membership and withhold forced dues for everything except the documented cost of monopoly bargaining. However, if union officials expel a union member for any reason other than a failure to pay dues, they are not entitled to collect *any dues whatsoever* from such persons.

26 Turnpike Employees Hit Teamsters Union with Two Civil Rights Lawsuits for Illegal Union Dues Seizures

**Pittsburgh/Harrisburg, PA (March 22, 2007)** — A group of 26 Pennsylvania Turnpike employees have filed two federal lawsuits against two Teamsters union locals, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and two Turnpike Commission officers for illegally seizing union dues from the employees’ paychecks in violation of their constitutional rights.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is giving the employees free legal aid to file the lawsuits. 19 employees filed the first suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, and seven employees filed the second suit the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh. The Harrisburg suit names Teamsters Union Local 77 and the Pittsburgh lawsuit names Teamsters Union Local 250 for their respective roles in the illegal dues seizures.

The 19 Turnpike employees in the Harrisburg suit are also filing a potentially precedent-setting claim challenging the constitutionality of a clause in the Teamster union-negotiated collective bargaining agreement that prohibits employees from resigning their formal union membership, except during a narrow 15-day window prior to the expiration of a three-year long collective bargaining contract. These so-called “maintenance of membership” clauses are common in the public sector in Pennsylvania. They are intended to block employees from exercising their constitutional rights to refrain from formal union membership, and to cut off funding for objectionable union activities.

Both lawsuits cite multiple violations of employees’ rights by Turnpike and Teamsters union officials in confiscating forced dues from employees who had resigned their formal union membership. The union hierarchy did not follow the minimal procedural protections required by the Supreme Court in the 1986 *Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson* decision. In the Foundation-won *Hudson* case, the High Court ruled that before collecting any forced dues, union officials must provide an audited disclosure of the union’s expenses and give employees an opportunity to object to paying forced union dues spent for certain activities.

Such audits are intended to ensure that nonunion public employees can cut off their funding of union activities unrelated to collective bargaining such as union politics, organizing, and union-only activities. Until employees receive a proper Hudson notice disclosing such expenditures, it is illegal for union officials to collect any forced dues from nonunion employees.

“In their lust for forced dues revenues, Teamsters union officials are trampling upon the rights of the very employees they claim to represent,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “These cases demonstrate two common types of abuse that occur because Pennsylvanian employees do not have the protection of a Right to Work law making the payment of union dues strictly voluntary.”

Download the Pittsburgh Complaint

Download the Harrisburg Complaint

California Labor Board Orders UFW to Stop Trying to Get Workers Fired for Refusal to Pay Full Union Dues

**Ventura, CA (February 21, 2007)** – California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) prosecutors have issued a decision and order that United Farm Workers (UFW) union officials must end its misrepresentations, illegal threats of firings, and unlawful dues demands against California Mushroom employees. The ALRB ruling contradicts earlier knee jerk UFW statements to the media denying any wrongdoing and that: “We give workers a clear choice and show them how to exercise their options.”

The ruling stems from unfair labor practice charges brought by a pair of California Mushroom (formerly PictSweet Mushroom Farms) workers in early March 2004 alleging that UFW union officials unlawfully demanded and/or collected full union dues from their paychecks, and threatened to order dissenting workers fired.
With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Guillermo Virgen and Gerardo Mendoza filed the class-action charges on behalf of roughly 400 workers employed by California Mushroom Farm. Aside from unlawful dues seizures and threats, the union hierarchy also failed to inform thousands of laborers statewide that they have the right to certain procedural protections to assure that their forced union dues do not finance activities unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activities.

Though many workers previously contested the amount of forced dues deducted from their paychecks, UFW officials simply ignored their objections.

The ALRB is ordering that UFW union officials inform California Mushroom employees of their right to refrain from paying full union dues, provide workers with an audit of the union’s books, and establish and provide procedures by which the employees can challenge the amount of forced dues the union deducts from their paychecks. UFW officials also must refund with interest any unlawfully seized dues, as well as post notices and inform employees both orally and through the mail that they have the right to withhold forced dues unrelated to collective bargaining.

UFW officials must also provide the ALRB with all related documents in order to “facilitate the calculation of refunds,” as well as process any languishing objections to paying full dues by employees.

“UFW union officials have repeatedly run roughshod over the rights of workers at California Mushroom Farm,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The union hierarchy’s refusal to respect the workers’ basic freedoms shows a clear disdain, not only for the employees that they claim to represent, but also for the rule of law.”

Not only did UFW officials violate the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, but they also infringed on rights recognized in several Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

Read the ALRB Ruling