State Court Refuses to Enforce Georgia’s Popular Right to Work Law

Nonmember employees forced to pay fees to Longshoreman union bosses vow appeal to state supreme court

Atlanta, GA (February 4, 2009) – National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys announced they will appeal last week’s stunning ruling by the Court of Appeals of Georgia that despite Georgia’s longstanding and popular Right to Work law, a local union may force nonmembers to pay for the privilege to work.

Georgia is one of 22 states with Right to Work protections which ensure that no worker can be forced to join or pay dues to a union in order to get or keep a job. The state law unambiguously states that “[n]o individual shall be required as a condition of employment or continuance of employment to pay any fee, assessment, or other sum of money whatsoever to a labor organization.”

Nonetheless, the Georgia Court of Appeals, affirming a lower court ruling, held that the International Longshoreman Association Local 1414 union may legally force nonmembers to pay a referral fee to the union on jobs obtained at a union hiring hall between June 2005 and September 2006. The controversial contract between the union and the Georgia Stevedores Association requires that all employees be hired through the union hiring hall. The union forces all nonmembers to pay referral fees as a condition of employment.

Attorneys at the National Right to Work Foundation are providing free legal aid to eleven nonmember employees who perform longshoremen work at the port of Savannah. Local 1414 union bosses have demanded the employees turn over approximately $1.33 each per hour worked.

The ruling took a position that the Georgia Right to Work law does not apply to a hiring hall scenario, and federal labor law does not permit states to prohibit unions from forcing workers to pay monies to an exclusive union hiring hall. However, Foundation attorneys argue that the Right to Work law unambiguously prohibits any mandate on employees to pay a union for the privilege to work, and state Right to Work laws cannot be preempted by federal law in this regard.

“Despite the clarity of Georgia’s popular Right to Work law, this court has concluded that the Right to Work law does not mean what it says,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “We are confident this ruling will be overturned.”

“This case shows you that even in Right to Work states, union tyrants will trick, lie, and steal their way into workers’ wallets,” continued Gleason.

Foundation attorneys are preparing a petition for certiorari to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Nonmember employees forced to pay fees to Longshoreman union bosses vow appeal to state supreme court

Atlanta, GA (February 4, 2009) – National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys announced they will appeal last week’s stunning ruling by the Court of Appeals of Georgia that despite Georgia’s longstanding and popular Right to Work law, a local union may force nonmembers to pay for the privilege to work.

Georgia is one of 22 states with Right to Work protections which ensure that no worker can be forced to join or pay dues to a union in order to get or keep a job. The state law unambiguously states that “[n]o individual shall be required as a condition of employment or continuance of employment to pay any fee, assessment, or other sum of money whatsoever to a labor organization.”

Nonetheless, the Georgia Court of Appeals, affirming a lower court ruling, held that the International Longshoreman Association Local 1414 union may legally force nonmembers to pay a referral fee to the union
on jobs obtained at a union hiring hall between June 2005 and September 2006. The controversial contract between the union and the Georgia Stevedores Association requires that all employees be hired through the union hiring hall. The union forces all nonmembers to pay referral fees as a condition of employment.

Click here to read the rest of the Foundation's press release.

Iowa union bosses and their patsies in the state legislature are again taking aim at Iowa's longstanding and popular Right to Work law.

Sarah Swisher, Iowa political director for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), recently told the Des Moines Register the real reason why union chiefs want to pass a repeal of Right to Work:

Unions want to be able to charge nonunion workers "reasonable" fees to help cover costs of union representation, such as when workers file grievances, Swisher said. She said the money would also be used to organize more workers, such as nurses.

"It certainly isn't for union halls or more union staff or higher wages for union staff," she said. "It's because we have a lot of workers in the state that need to be organized."

So there you go. Union bosses want more money so they can organize even more workers to get more money. While it is illegal for unions to charge nonmembers for any activity which union bosses cannot prove relates to collective bargaining -- and courts have found organizing to be unrelated -- a strong Right to Work law is the only true protection.

Here on Freedom@Work, we've kept a close watch on Hilda Solis, the California Congresswoman nominated by President Obama to serve as Secretary of Labor. 

We've told you about Solis' secret ballot hypocrisy, her admission that she is not "qualified" to discuss Right to Work, her refusal to answer basic questions on key labor issues, and her position as treasurer (which she failed to disclose to Congress) with a Big Labor lobbying group.

Now USA Today reports that Hilda Solis is the fourth major Obama nominee to be faced with a tax scandal:

The husband of President Obama's Labor secretary nominee paid about $6,400 Wednesday to settle tax liens that had been outstanding for as long as 16 years against his business, the Obama administration told USA TODAY this afternoon...

Personal tax problems have tripped up three of President Obama's nominees for top administration jobs. Two nominees withdrew on Tuesday over tax issues, including Tom Daschle, Obama's choice head the Health and Human Services Department. The other withdrawal was chief performance officer nominee Nancy Killefer, who had a $947 tax lien filed against her in Washington four years ago for not paying unemployment compensation taxes for a household employee. She paid the debt less than six months later, District of Columbia records show.

But there's more.  According to the report, some of the tax liens resulted from "unpaid county health and safety permit fees."  And Solis has the gall to seek a position that enforces health and safety laws against workplaces across America? 

Maybe Solis' cozy relationship with Big Labor's high command over the years has given her the false impression shared by so many union bosses that they are above the law.  With all those special privileges such as immunity from federal prosecution for union violence and exemption from anti-monopoly laws, union bosses actually are above the law in many respects.  And with Solis running the Department of Labor, union chiefs would expect Solis -- who voted with the AFL-CIO 100% of the time -- to cut funding to the agency which investigates union boss corruption.

Solis' indiscretions are even more disturbing in light of President Obama's recent executive orders which would give the Secretary of Labor unprecedented authority to fire federal contractors who don't grease the rails for coervice card check organizing. 

This hypocrite aspiring to be Labor Secretary is poised to receive virtually unchecked power over which contractors get to do work funded by the nearly trillion dollar "stimulus" plan.  Perhaps Hilda Solis should withdraw herself from consideration and get her own house in order.

Last Friday afternoon, as the Senate prepared to pass the massive, pork-filled “stimulus” bill, President Barack Obama quietly arranged to virtually ensure that every construction project funded by the federal government will result in more forced union dues revenue for Big Labor.

The new executive order signed by Obama on Friday encourages government bureaucrats to adopt discriminatory, union-only project labor agreements for any “large-scale construction project” – defined as any project costing over $25 million – and thus discriminate against the 92.5 percent of private sector workers who have chosen for a wide variety of reasons not to join a union.

With the “stimulus” bill approaching one trillion dollars including many such projects, Big Labor stands to rake in literally hundreds of millions of dollars in new forced-dues revenue seized straight out of workers’ paychecks, whether they support the union or not. (Meanwhile, other "stimulus" funds will go to groups with strong ties to organized labor.)

President Obama’s new executive order comes a week after he issued two other executive orders giving the Secretary of Labor unchecked, unprecedented authority to blacklist non-union employees wanting to work on federal contracts.

Taken together, the new executive orders indicate President Obama is quite eager to repay the union bosses for spending well over one billion dollars (in mostly forced union dues) to elect Obama and other pro-forced unionism candidates.

Moreover, Big Labor’s high command is likely to funnel that money right back into its political machine in expectation of even more forced unionism power grabs – including efforts toward the ultimate goal of eliminating all 22 state Right to Work laws by federal fiat.

This week, National Right to Work Foundation president Mark Mix sent a formal letter to the director of the Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards, the federal agency tasked with providing union members and nonmembers with valuable information about how union bosses are spending their forced dues.

The letter is in response to the Obama Administration's apparent intention to delay (and ultimately cancel) some needed refinements to reporting requirements established by the Bush Administration which enhance union transparency and accountability of union expenditures.

Here are a few examples of union boss malfeasance the planned LM-2 revisions would elucidate:

• Why a local UAW union bought a John Deere tractor for $18,000 before selling it the same year for only $678
• Which Machinists union bosses are using forced dues during an economic downturn to fly to Ireland on a private jet
• How much union officials get paid in fringe benefits and whether those benefits comply with the union constitution

Mix's letter further notes the appearance of impropriety created by the Obama Administration's quick action to table the new disclosure requirements. Union bosses, who spent record sums electing Obama to the White House and who expect continued payback, have long opposed providing financial disclosure members and nonmembers.

Unfortunately, because of the incompetence of Bush Administration officials, these needed improvements to the LM-2 disclosure rules had not yet gone into effect -- even though they had been in the works for two years. Outfoxed by the bureaucracy once again, the outgoing Bushies missed the window of opportunity by a matter of days.

For more, read the full text (PDF) of Mix's letter.

In all the recent "stimulus" hoopla, President Barack Obama and Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman have found themselves in something of a war of words:

Sin City's mayor wants President Barack Obama to apologize for saying companies shouldn't visit Las Vegas on the taxpayer's dime.

Oscar Goodman spoke after a regular scheduled meeting with tourism officials where he expressed concern that federal lawmakers might be discouraging travel to the city...

"You can't get corporate jets, you can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer's dime," Obama said.

President Obama has already begun paying back Big Labor's big money boys for spending record sums to put him in the White House. As we reported yesterday on Freedom@Work, part of this payback is the Obama Administration's quiet attempt to delay and ultimately cancel a new rule requiring union bosses to report more specific information about how they are spending their forced dues revenue.

Members and nonmembers forced to pay dues as a condition of employment deserve the right to know where their money is going -- for instance, this private LearJet, shown below taking off in Las Vegas. Machinists union bosses spent $1.8 million (from forced dues) for hangars, jet fuel, jet maintenance, mechanics, pilots, and associated loan repayments in 2006 alone.

In November, Machinists union bosses flew the jet from Canada to Ireland on workers' dime. But the Obama Administration is moving right now to keep the ordinary unionized worker from knowing how much this and other flights by union bosses cost the employees on a per-union-official basis.

Obama claims he wants transparency and accountability -- but apparently he makes an exception for union bosses.

Perhaps due to their plethora of special privileges under the law, union bosses frequently act and speak as if they were the actual government. Take AFSCME Maryland union boss Patrick Moran, who insultingly blustered to the Baltimore Sun,

This is about democracy, bottom line. If you don't like democracy, then I guess you don't like the country we live in.

You see, Moran's government union -- with the support of union-label politicians like Governor Martin O'Malley -- wants the power to force nonmembers to pay for "services" they didn't ask for and don't want.

"At some point we can't be a charity," said Sue Esty, assistant director for AFSCME Maryland.

Union bosses want the special privilege effectively to tax independent employees as a condition of employment.

Of course, union chiefs refuse to accept the easiest, most fair solution. Rather than lobbying for a new law forcing nonmember employees to pay so-called "fees" to an unwanted union, union bosses could work to repeal any sections of the law which supposedly require them to "represent" nonmembers.

The reason union officials will never accept this solution is simple: they just want the money.

The fees could more than double the union's annual income. Currently, the union collects about $3.8 million in dues from about 10,000 members a year.