Wisconsin AFSCME Union Bosses Face Federal Charges for Illegally Seizing Forced Dues for Politics
Wisconsin needs Right to Work law to protect workers from forced unionism abuses
Milwaukee, WI (March 16, 2011) – A U.S. Bank customer service and support employee has filed federal charges against a local union after local union officials illegally attempted to force him and his colleagues into full-dues-paying union membership.
Peter Quinones of Milwaukee filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Tuesday with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.
After American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 777 union officials were granted monopoly bargaining privileges over approximately 300 U.S. Bank employees, Quinones sent a letter to union officials stating that he was exercising his right under National Right to Work Foundation-won Supreme Court precedent in Communication Workers v. Beck to refrain from full dues paying union membership.
Because Wisconsin is a forced unionism state, workers who refrain from formal union membership can still be forced to pay a certain amount of union dues, but cannot be compelled to pay the portion of union dues used for the union’s political, lobbying, and member-only activities.
Despite his letter, AFSCME Local 777 union officials continued to extract full union dues from his paycheck. After Quinones filed an unfair labor practice charge, union officials still refused to honor his request to exercise his legal rights.
Quinones’ latest charge seeks to prevent the AFSCME union hierarchy from requiring him to pay forced union fees by automatic deduction from his paycheck in violation of federal law.
“As we have seen in recent weeks, AFSCME union officials will stop at nothing to collect forced union dues from workers – whether they are in the public or private sector – to pay for their political activism,” said Patrick Semmens, National Right to Work Foundation legal information director. “Wisconsin’s workers desperately need Right to Work protections to protect them from the very union bosses that claim to care about workers’ rights while violating workers’ rights.”
If enacted, a Wisconsin Right to Work law would end compulsory union dues by making union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary. Polls consistently show that 8 in 10 Americans support the Right to Work principle, that no worker should be compelled to join a union or pay union dues to get or keep a job. Twenty-two states have already passed Right to Work protections for their workers.
Comments
I CAN RELATE!
I, too, have been forced to join AFSCME in Wisconsin. Because I work between 20 & 30 hours (I work 26), I have to pay $35/month out of my paycheck. I have no benefits such as paid vacation, sick, or holidays. So, it is feasible that I could go a month without any income, but would still have to pay union dues. Several in my place of employment feel this is wrong.
Special Interest Group
the NRTW is the very definition of Special Interest Group.
You are waging a massive blitzkreig coup and are unamerican.
These are my comments, I am free to voice them under the 1st amendment even though there is massive media browbeating by the republican party and special interests like yours.
My future as well as those of my children are in serious danger because of you.
Your group has not existed as long as the UNITED STATES, which itself is a Union, that being, the UNITED STATES of AMERICA. A UNION of STATES UNITED.
Your group itself, is also a union with a very ANTI WORKER agenda.
If conditions in the workplace are unworkable then it undermines our nation.
I am not buying this lemon.
You offer REMOVAL of protection only.
Wrong.
Your future isn't in jeopardy b/c of NRTW. It's in jeopardy b/c NRTW stands for freedom to choose - not the abolishment of unions, but *freedom to choose* whether to join one or not. Unions don't want Americans to have that choice. Unions can't afford to let them make that choice because they need those dues. And most *choose* against joining a union. That's all it boils down to.
And here's a newsflash for you - 90% of the *WORKERS* in this country don't belong to a union and don't want to, so stop pretending that unions speak for *WORKERS*, b/c they don't.
Four union leaders in WI just made a deal - that deal gained their *WORKERS* absolutely nothing - no pay raises, no bargaining for benefits, pay raises, better work environments, NOTHING. But you know what it did do? It secured involuntary dues for the next 3 years. Period. So don't tell me a unions #1 priority is the workers or the kids or a 'better world thru social justice' - it is now and *always has been* about money and power. And if you still don't believe me, take a look at your paycheck and compare it to $150K your leadership makes. What do their raises look like, compared to yours? They're on the merit system, baby. You, on the other hand, are in the foodchain.
Union Objectives
I was a union member for over twenty years. Eventually, it became too obvious to ignore that the union used the majority of its resources to work against my interests. The union would work for the benefit of the members as long as it did not conflict with the interests of the union bosses. The prime directive for the union is to acquire as much wealth as possible and use it to purchase as much political power as possible. The objective of labor unions is to have big government run our lives and big labor to run our government.
Bismarck
Union Protection
To who ever Special Interest reflection on the NRTW on 3/19/2011.
There was a time when yes, the Unions were our friends, but with a heavy price. When Hoffa was the King Pin of the Teamsters Union there was work to be had for most anyone who wanted it. The mob offered the same type of work environment. If you disagreed with a union policy, made it verbal or gave them the idea that you would go public and "rat them out" then someone would visit you and you could be wearing the old "concrete shoes".
The above scenario was found in both the Teamsters and the Mob and their members were kepth in line through hard handed policies of coercion and goons. Today's union is not much better, but is more underground in its methods. I am Teamsters (Withdrawn in godd standing) and I am currently out of work. The stories that I could tell about the last place that I worked and that the union and the Company were strange bed fellows. When a Company has a Union in its pocket through it's own use of coercion (Worker voted Union Reps-Company has to Okay the choice) and I will not go into the rest due to posasible legal ramifications. I will say that the Unions do have way too much political clout and do push for their workers to vote for a politcal candidate with a singular perspective-vote for candidate A if you want to work and for Candidate B if you want to be out of work, your family will starve, and it is American to stand with the Uion in voting for this particular Candidate. If you are honest and can do the math, then you should be able to figure out what I am saying.
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Geez, that's unbeliebvale. Kudos and such.
(More) Special Interest Group
I am a Special Interest Group, an American citizen with Constitutional Rights and Protections.
I CHOOSE not to be FORCED to be a Socialist in exchange for a Union Card.
I CHOOSE not to be FORCED to have pay taken for POLITICAL USE.
I CHOOSE to BE FREE to MY CHOICE of Political Donation if I CHOOSE to make any!
NRTW is a CHOICE, a "free choice" to MY OWN individual rights.
THE UNION is the SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP; the ones WHO REMOVE my personal right to choose.
I don't want to be FORCED TO BE A SOCIALIST; by means of BEING FORCED INTO A UNION; to have my dues used WITHOUT MY PERMISSION to support the SOCIALIST PARTY (Democrats).