Charge comes while employees seek vote to remove UFCW union from facility
Dallas, TX (July 11, 2023) – Alex Botello, a Dallas-based employee of food manufacturer Danone North America, has hit the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 540 union with federal charges after union officials illegally seized union dues from his paycheck. Botello filed his charges at Region 16 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Dallas with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
Botello’s charge says that UFCW bosses rebuffed or ignored his two attempts to revoke a dues checkoff authorization. Botello maintains that the union’s actions violate his rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which is supposed to protect American private sector workers’ right to refrain from union activity.
Because Texas is a Right to Work state, UFCW union officials lack the legal authority to demand any money from Botello as a condition of employment. Right to Work laws provide more comprehensive protections than the NLRA by making union membership and all union dues payment strictly voluntary for private sector workers. In non-Right to Work states, in contrast, union officials can force workers to pay some union fees as a condition of getting or keeping a job.
Worker Followed Union Instructions to Stop Dues Deductions, But Union Continued to Take Money
Botello’s charge says that he first tried to stop dues deductions from his paycheck in October 2022. The UFCW rejected his request in a letter, which stated that his attempt was untimely and that he could only revoke his dues checkoff during a narrow union-created “window period” lasting from March 27, 2023, until April 11, 2023.
Botello resubmitted his revocation request on April 3, 2023, within the “window period” specified by the union. However, union dues did not stop coming out of his paycheck. “The Union’s failure to accept Charging Party’s timely revocation letter and immediately cease deducting dues violates the National Labor Relations Act,” reads Botello’s charge.
Workers Nationwide Battle Illegal UFCW Dues Schemes
Botello’s charge is just the latest Foundation-backed legal action that workers across the country have taken against UFCW union officials for illegal dues practices. Also in Texas, Houston Kroger employee Jessica Haefner is challenging UFCW Local 455 union officials’ collection of dues from her paycheck under the guise of a union card that was altered to show her consent to dues deductions she never agreed to. As in Botello’s case, Haefner followed union officials’ directions on how to end union dues deductions, but money continued to come out of her wages.
In Pennsylvania, Foundation attorneys represented Giant Eagle supermarket cashier Josiah Leonatti, who charged UFCW Local 1776KS union officials with refusing to accommodate his religious objections to union membership. His charges say union officials tried to subject him to an illegal “religion test” before they considered granting him an accommodation.
UFCW Officials Attempting to Remain in Power Despite Danone Employees’ Request for Union Decertification Vote
Separately, Botello and his coworkers submitted two petitions to the NLRB, asking the agency for a vote to remove, or “decertify,” the UFCW union. Botello submitted the first petition on August 29, 2022, but regional NLRB officials rejected the petition at UFCW bosses’ behest. NLRB officials claimed that a contract ratified by union bosses and management in 2019 would remain in effect until November 15, 2022. As per the NLRB’s non-statutory “contract bar” policy, union officials can block workers from exercising their right to vote them out of a workplace for up to three years after a contract is finalized.
Botello submitted the second petition after the 2019 union contract expired, based on the NLRB Region’s decision on the first petition finding that the 2019 contract was operative on August 29, the day that Botello submitted the first petition. However, regional NLRB officials blocked the second petition on the grounds that a more recent contract had actually been in effect since August 25. This is a contradiction to the regional NLRB decision blocking the first petition, as that decision rested on the conclusion that the 2019 contract was in effect on August 29, not the union’s August 25 contract.
Botello filed requests for review challenging the Region’s dismissals of both petitions. The NLRB granted Botello’s requests and directed Region 16 to take another look at these cases.
“The situation at the Dallas Danone plant illustrates how far UFCW union bosses, and in many instances NLRB officials, are willing to go to trap workers under union monopoly control and forced dues, even when there’s clear evidence that workers do not support them,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Any worker under UFCW control who experiences similar infringements of their rights should not hesitate to reach out to the Foundation for free legal aid.”
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.
