Trenton, NJ (December 14, 2005) – With free legal help from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, a New Jersey state employee filed unfair labor practice charges today against the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1034 union and the New Jersey State Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) for vindictively reversing a promotion and pay raise he had earned. Gary Lipsius, a NJDEP employee, was told by the department in July he would receive a promotion, but CWA union officials immediately intervened and persuaded the agency to rescind the promotion in retaliation for a 2004 civil rights lawsuit Lipsius brought seeking to protect his constitutional rights and the rights of thousands of his colleagues. The union hierarchy had been unlawfully compelling employees to pay compulsory union dues for politics without due process. Lipsius petitioned the NJDEP for a promotion in 2003 because his ongoing duties more accurately reflected the elevated title and salary. When his promotion was denied in December 2003 by the New Jersey Division of Resources Management, Lipsius appealed to an independent classification reviewer who agreed that he was entitled to the promotion and pay raise based on his duties. Lipsius’ unfair labor practice charges filed at the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission seek back pay under the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act, as well as reinstatement of his raise and promotion. According to records provided by the New Jersey Department of Personnel, approximately 440 promotion requests were considered between July 28, 2001 and June 25, 2005. In none of these cases, which were all initiated by the CWA union, the employee, or both, was an employee promotion denied. “CWA union officials want to make an example of Gary Lipsius to intimidate New Jersey public employees that refuse to toe the line,” said Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason. “Such strong-armed tactics show that union officials care more about stuffing their coffers than looking out for the interests of workers that they supposedly represent.” In a 2004 class-action lawsuit against the CWA union, Lipsius alleged that the union was illegally deducting compulsory dues from the paychecks of thousands of nonunion New Jersey employees. Also receiving free legal aid from Foundation attorneys, he and two of his colleagues charged the CWA union with collecting compulsory dues for activities such as politics without properly disclosing the union’s expenditures. Under the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court decision Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson, before collecting any forced dues, union officials must first provide an audited disclosure of the union’s books. Such audits are intended to ensure that forced union dues seized from nonunion public employees do not fund union activities unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activities.