Effort follows several employee removals of Teamsters officials at other workplaces across country

Galesburg, IL (February 1, 2022) – With free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys, Zachary Pedigo and his fellow paramedics and EMTs at Galesburg Hospitals Ambulance Service are seeking to exercise their right to vote unwanted Teamsters Local 627 bosses out of power at their workplace. Pedigo submitted a petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) requesting a “decertification vote.”

The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law and adjudicating disputes between employers, unions, and individual employees. If successful, Pedigo and his coworkers’ effort would be the latest in a string of Foundation-assisted employee elections removing Teamsters officials from power. In just the past year, Rush University maintenance workers in Chicago, Frito-Lay salesmen in Del Rio, TX, Allied Central Coast truckers in Santa Maria, CA, XPO Logistics workers in Cinnaminson, NJ, and Blish-Mize hardware distribution employees in Atchison, KS, all voted to decertify unpopular Teamsters local unions.

Additionally, Airgas employees in Ventura, CA, and XPO Logistics workers in Los Angeles, CA, were freed from Teamsters power last year after union officials departed both workplaces to preempt likely election losses.

For more than a year workers have been enjoying an easier pathway to exercising their right to remove unwanted union officials. The NLRB in Washington, DC, in July 2020 enacted new rules governing decertification elections which, drawing from comments Foundation attorneys submitted to the agency earlier that year, now forbid union bosses from indefinitely stalling worker-requested votes based on so-called “blocking charges.” Such charges are union allegations against an employer that are often unproven and unrelated to workers’ desire to oust union officials.

Because Illinois lacks Right to Work protections for its private sector employees, such as Pedigo and his fellow paramedics and EMTs, they can be forced to pay part of full union dues as a condition of keeping their jobs even if they are not union members and oppose the union’s presence. However, because the most recent contract between Teamsters officials and Galesburg Hospitals Ambulance Service expired around a month ago, this obligation does not currently exist for Pedigo and his coworkers. They can only be legally compelled to pay dues or fees again once a new contract is in place.

Under the protection of Right to Work laws, which are on the books in 27 states, individual employees have the freedom to choose to voluntarily become union members and to financially support a union, or to abstain from both.

“Mr. Pedigo and his coworkers, who provide lifesaving first aid to the citizens of Galesburg, should not have to be subjects of Teamsters union bosses whose so-called ‘representation’ they oppose,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Thanks to Foundation-advocated reforms adopted by the NLRB in 2020, Mr. Pedigo and his fellow paramedics and EMTs should have an easier path to voting out the union. However, Foundation attorneys will ensure that their voices are heard and will battle any attempts to stifle their rights by Teamsters officials.”

Elsewhere in Illinois, Foundation staff attorneys are aiding Nick Salzmann and his fellow Village of Carpentersville part-time firefighters in attempting to decertify an unpopular Service Employees International Union (SEIU) affiliate in their workplace. Salzmann and his coworkers are battling “blocking charges” filed by SEIU bosses against Village officials to delay the firefighters’ requested decertification election. Salzmann and his coworkers are public employees and thus under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Labor Relations Board (ILRB), not the NLRB. The ILRB, which lacks protections against “blocking charges,” is giving SEIU bosses a chance to stymie Salzmann and his coworkers’ attempt to free themselves from unwanted union control.

National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation President issues statement in recognition of National School Choice Week

Washington, DC (January 27, 2022) – Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, issued the following statement in recognition of National School Choice Week 2022:

On School Choice Week 2022, the importance of protecting the right of parents to select their own children’s education is more important than ever. Over the past year, radical teacher union officials continued to wield their government-granted monopoly bargaining powers to impose controversial, top-down policies that harmed parents, kids, and independent-minded teachers.

Government school lockdowns pushed by politics-obsessed union chiefs like the American Federation of Teachers’ Randi Weingarten devastated American kids. Teacher union bosses’ coercive government-granted privileges allow union chiefs to hold the education of kids hostage to union political demands. Monopoly bargaining lets union officials push aside the interests of parents and children, but it also forces independent-minded teachers under union control they oppose.

Teachers from elementary schools all the way up through public colleges oppose union officials’ monopoly powers too, taking issue with the workplace policies or political views of the union hierarchy. In fact, a group of Jewish City University of New York professors just filed a federal lawsuit challenging New York State’s law allowing the Professional Staff Congress union to impose its so-called ‘representation’ on them – ‘representation’ they find to be very anti-Semitic.

No less an advocate of unions than Franklin Delano Roosevelt once cautioned that “All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.” Roosevelt was right, and since COVID-19’s arrival there’s been more than enough evidence of the havoc teacher union boss control has wrought on kids, parents, teachers, and the public at large.

Without school choice, parents and kids would have no option but to bear this top-down control, so it makes sense that citizens are leaving union-dominated government schools in record numbers. For much the same reason, teacher union bosses oppose giving parents choices like charter schools, because those options threaten union boss monopoly control over education.

School choice, while a basic right that all parents should enjoy, shouldn’t be a last resort parents employ simply to get their kids out of unstable union-dominated schools. Teachers, as well, shouldn’t have to flee traditional public schools just so they can escape being forced to associate with a private organization espousing views or policies that they abhor.

Worker charges state UAW union bosses and GM officials ignored multiple requests from worker to stop funding union political activities

Rochester, NY (January 25, 2022) – With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Rochester General Motors employee Roger Clemons has successfully forced United Auto Workers (UAW) union bosses at his workplace to stop illegally funneling money from his paycheck into union politics. Clemons filed federal charges with Foundation aid in September 2021 against UAW Local 1097 and the UAW’s international hierarchy, asserting that union agents ignored his requests to opt-out of funding the union’s political agenda.

A Foundation-won settlement now forces UAW international and local officials to “make whole…Roger Clemons for all dues and fees” that were deducted from his paycheck in violation of the Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision. Beck forbids union officials from forcing workers under their control to fund union politics and other union expenses unrelated to the union’s core bargaining functions.

Because New York State lacks Right to Work protections for its private sector workers, union officials can still legally force workers to pay some union fees under threat of termination. In Right to Work states, union membership and all union financial support are strictly voluntary.

Clemons stated in his September 2021 charge against UAW Local 1097 officials that UAW officials had a history of flouting his Beck rights, failing to reduce his union dues even after he ended his union membership and became a “Beck objector” in October 2019. “Only after Mr. Clemons filed an [earlier] unfair labor practice charge…did the union comply with the requirements of the law,” the charge noted, detailing that union officials finally sent him rebate checks in June and July 2020 for excess dues they took from his paycheck.

However, UAW officials continued to create obstacles for Mr. Clemons’ Beck rights. The September 2021 charge also asserted that despite Clemons’ renewing his Beck objection in October 2020, he then did not receive “a single rebate check or a reduction in the dues deducted from his wages” for almost a year. UAW and GM officials both ignored multiple attempts at correspondence from him on this issue, the charge noted.

The charge contended that these actions violated Mr. Clemons’ rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, which protects individual employees’ rights to abstain “from any or all of” union activities. General Motors, Clemons’ employer, was also charged for its role in enforcing the illegal dues deductions.

The settlement now forbids UAW officials from “accept[ing] dues or fees which have been deducted from the paycheck of Roger Clemons, or any other Beck objector, which are in excess of the amount we can lawfully charge to Beck objectors.” UAW officials also are required to return dues that they seized from Clemons in excess of the reduced Beck amount.

Union officials devote enormous sums to political activity. A report from the National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR) released in 2021 revealed that union officials’ own Department of Labor filings show around $2 billion in political spending during the 2020 cycle, primarily from dues-stocked union general treasuries. However, other estimates strongly suggest that actual union spending on political and lobbying activities topped $12 billion.

“Rank-and-file workers should know they have a right to refuse to fund union politics, especially with union political spending in 2020 having approached record numbers and midterm elections coming up,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Workers under UAW control, like Mr. Clemons, have special reason to be on guard, given the UAW’s perennial interest in politics and corruption at the very top levels of the UAW hierarchy, which has landed at least 10 former UAW honchos in jail primarily for misuse of worker funds.”

“No American worker should be forced to subsidize any union boss political advocacy and the National Right to Work Foundation is proud to assist workers seeking to exercise their right to cut off financial support for union politics they oppose,” added Mix.

Charges come after hundreds of nurses backed petition for election to oust MNA union from St. Vincent, resulting in vote scheduled for February 4

Worcester, MA (January 13, 2022) – St. Vincent Hospital nurse Regina Renaud has hit the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) union at the facility with federal charges, asserting that union officials are illegally demanding nurses pay union dues for time periods when there was no contract in effect between the hospital and union. Renaud filed the charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.

Renaud’s charges come as hundreds of St. Vincent Hospital nurses have requested a vote whether to remove the MNA union from the facility. During a more than 300-day strike ordered by MNA union officials that finally concluded in early January, St. Vincent nurse Richard Avola gathered signatures from enough of his coworkers to prompt the NLRB to arrange such an election, and on January 11 an agreement was reached scheduling the election to begin on February 4. The disastrous strike clearly divided the nurses, the hospital, the community, and the patients.

Media reports indicate that union militants harassed and bullied nurses who returned to the hospital to care for patients during the protracted strike. Union partisans reportedly put photographs of working nurses on strike paraphernalia and took illicit pictures of nurses’ license plates, among other tactics. Despite credible reports of union harassment of nurses who exercised their right to work, high-profile elected officials including U.S. Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren expressed support for the union boss-ordered strike.

Renaud’s charge reports that she is not an MNA member but is still forced to pay a portion of full union dues to keep her job. In states like Massachusetts that lack Right to Work protections, even workers who refuse full union membership can be forced to pay money to union officials to stay employed. However, this requirement is suspended in the absence of a monopoly bargaining contract between an employer and union. In Right to Work states, union membership and financial support are always strictly voluntary.

Renaud’s charge notes that, during the strike, no contract was in effect between MNA and St. Vincent management and “[a]s a matter of law the Charging Party and other similarly situated employees owed no dues or fees to the MNA during that contract hiatus.” However, on January 5, 2022, MNA sent bills to Renaud and other nurses who are not union members, ordering them to pay dues for a time period that included the contract hiatus.

“Thus, MNA is demanding and attempting to collect retroactive dues for several past months in which the Charging Party and other similarly situated nurses did not owe any dues and could not legally be required to pay such dues as a condition of employment…,” the Unfair Labor Practice charge states.

“In the aftermath of the long-drawn-out MNA boss-ordered strike on St. Vincent Hospital, evidence is rapidly emerging on the coercion and retaliation that union officials inflicted on the very nurses they claim to represent,” observed National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Ms. Renaud’s charges show that MNA officials ignored even the most basic legal protections for workers who do not wish to financially support a union.”

“St. Vincent Hospital nurses are fully justified in exercising their right to vote out MNA union officials. Any nurses who encounter union attempts to infringe on that right or who experienced other MNA malfeasance should reach out to the National Right to Work Foundation for free legal aid,” Mix added.

CUNY professors challenge New York State law that forces them to be represented by union hierarchy that ostracizes and discriminates against them

New York, NY (January 13, 2022) – Six City University of New York (CUNY) professors have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) union and others. The suit challenges the New York State law (“Taylor Law”) that PSC union officials use to force the professors under their monopoly “representation,” even though none of the professors are union members and all wish to dissociate completely from the union due to its extreme ideology and poor representation. The professors are receiving free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and The Fairness Center.

According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, plaintiffs Avraham Goldstein, Michael Goldstein, Frimette Kass-Shraibman, Mitchell Langbert, Jeffrey Lax, and Maria Pagano oppose PSC “based largely on its ideological and political advocacy” and their dissatisfaction with the union’s exclusive control over their working conditions. The complaint further details that “[a]ll but one of the plaintiffs are Jewish,” and several chose to dissociate from PSC because of a June 2021 union resolution that “Plaintiffs view as anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, and anti-Israel,” as well as other actions taken “in a manner that harms the Jewish plaintiffs and singles them out for opprobrium, hatred, and harassment based on their religious, ethnic, and/or moral beliefs and identity.”

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are CUNY, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, and New York Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) Chairman John Wirenius, for the state’s role in enforcing the union’s monopoly “representation.” The suit notes that “[d]espite Plaintiffs’ resignations from membership in PSC, Defendants…, acting in concert and under color of state law, force all Plaintiffs to continue to utilize PSC as their exclusive bargaining representative.”

Lawsuit: Jewish Professors and Others Compelled to Fund, Associate with Union Even After Bullying and Threats

The complaint recounts the various ways plaintiffs report being discriminated against by union and university agents. It says that Prof. Michael Goldstein “has experienced anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist attacks from members of PSC, including what he sees as bullying, harassment, destruction of property, calls for him to be fired, organization of student attacks against him, and threats against him and his family.” Goldstein now has a guard accompany him on campus, the complaint notes.

Prof. Lax, the complaint says, already received in a separate case a letter of determination from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) “that CUNY and PSC leaders discriminated against him, retaliated against him, and subjected him to a hostile work environment on the basis of religion.” Prof. Lax “has felt marginalized and ostracized by PSC because the union has made it clear that Jews who support the Jewish homeland, the State of Israel, are not welcome,” the complaint reads.

The lawsuit asserts that the PSC union, acting under the Taylor Law, is violating the professors’ First Amendment right of free association by compelling them “to associate with PSC, and to therefore be associated with PSC’s speech and PSC positions with which Plaintiffs vehemently disagree and believe to be anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.”

The lawsuit also notes that the professors are similarly being forced to associate with CUNY employees in the PSC union “bargaining unit” who “do not share their political views and who espouse views Plaintiffs believe to be anti-Semitic or anti-Israel,” another violation of their First Amendment rights. Additionally, the plaintiffs are “forced into the same bargaining unit with CUNY instructional staff, such as part-time adjuncts, whose employment interests diverge from their own.”

The complaint contends finally that PSC union bosses are violating the First Amendment as detailed in the 2018 National Right to Work Foundation-won Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision, in which the Justices ruled it a First Amendment violation to force public employees to fund union activities as a condition of keeping their jobs, or to take union dues from public employees’ paychecks without their individual and affirmative consent.

Although Professors Avraham Goldstein, Kass-Shraibman, and Langbert each resigned their union memberships and attempted to cut off dues, the complaint explains that “Defendants PSC and the City or DiNapoli have taken and continue to take and/or have accepted and continue to accept union dues from certain Plaintiffs’ wages as a condition of employment…” in violation of Janus.

Suit Seeks Overturn of New York State Law Forcing Union Power on Professors, Damages

The lawsuit seeks to stop the defendants from “certifying or recognizing PSC, or any other union, as Plaintiffs’ exclusive representative without their consent” and “enforcing any provisions…that require Plaintiffs to provide financial support to PSC.” It also demands that the court declare “Section 204 of the Taylor Law…unconstitutional under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to the extent that it requires or authorizes PSC to be Plaintiffs’ exclusive representative…”

Also sought are refunds of the “dues seized from the wages of Plaintiffs A. Goldstein, Kass-Shraibman, and Langbert” in violation of their First Amendment Janus rights and compensatory damages for “Defendants’ unlawful interference with and deprivation” of the professors’ constitutional rights.

“By forcing these professors into a union collective against their will, the state of New York mandates that they associate with union officials and other union members who take positions that are deeply offensive to these professors’ most fundamental beliefs,” observed National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Going as far back as the 1944 Steele v. Louisville & Nashville Railway Co decision, the Supreme Court has recognized that union bosses misuse their government-granted monopoly bargaining powers to take offensive positions that are directly contrary to the interests of many employees who are forced under a union’s so-called ‘representation’ against their will.”

“New York State’s Taylor Law authorizes such unconscionable compulsion. It is time federal courts fully protect the rights of government employees to freely exercise their freedom to dissociate from an unwanted union, whether their objections are religious, cultural, financial, or otherwise,” added Mix.

Carpentersville firefighters collected enough signatures for election whether to boot SEIU, but union officials are now attempting to block the vote

Chicago, IL (January 10, 2022) – With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Village of Carpentersville firefighters are defending their right to remove unpopular Service Employees International Union (SEIU) officials from power at their workplace. Leading the effort is Carpentersville firefighter Nick Salzmann, who submitted a decertification petition to the Illinois Labor Relations Board (ILRB) seeking an employee vote whether to oust the union.

The ILRB is the Illinois state agency responsible for adjudicating workplace disputes between union officials, Illinois government agencies, and Illinois public employees. Although the ILRB was prepared to schedule a decertification vote for later this month in response to Salzmann and his coworkers’ petition, SEIU union bosses levied “blocking charges” against Village of Carpentersville officials in an attempt to stall the vote. Foundation attorneys are now assisting Salzmann in opposing the delay.

SEIU union officials control contracts for all part-time firefighters in Carpentersville, including Salzmann and his colleagues. Salzmann in September 2021 submitted enough employee signatures to trigger the decertification election under state law. However, SEIU officials seek to block the employee action citing an unrelated incident that occurred after the employees’ petition was filed.

Foundation staff attorneys regularly help rank-and-file employees exercise their right to boot unwanted union officials out of their workplaces. In the past year alone, the Foundation successfully aided Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center technicians in Las Vegas, Rush University maintenance workers in Chicago, Main Street Car Wash employees in New York City, Airgas and XPO Logistics workers in Southern California, and others in obtaining votes to nix unpopular unions.

Most recently, Foundation staff attorneys are also assisting St. Vincent Hospital nurses in Worcester, MA, with their effort to vote out Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) officials. MNA bosses ordered a more than 300-day strike against the hospital – the longest in Massachusetts history – during which hundreds of nurses signed a decertification petition demanding a vote to oust MNA.

Thanks to Foundation-advocated reforms the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) adopted in 2020, what used to be “blocking charges” now rarely stifle employee requests for decertification votes in private sector workplaces covered by the National Labor Relations Act, and are generally dealt with after votes have been tallied. However, Illinois public sector employees are instead under the jurisdiction of the ILRB.

“Mr. Salzmann and his coworkers, who put themselves in harm’s way to protect the citizens of Carpentersville, certainly don’t deserve to have their right to dispense with unwanted union ‘representation’ vitiated by the very union bosses who claim to serve them,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “It’s also ridiculous that Illinois law permits union bosses to delay employee votes simply by accusing the employer of often-unrelated alleged wrongdoing, making employees’ free choice subordinate to union bosses’ thirst to remain in power.”

“Foundation attorneys will fight for Mr. Salzmann and his colleagues until they are able to make their voices heard,” Mix added.

Many nurses reported union harassment and bullying during 300+ day union boss ordered strike, now they seek vote to remove union

Worcester, MA (January 4, 2022) – Staff attorneys at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation are now representing Richard Avola, a nurse at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MA, in his and his colleagues’ push to eject unpopular Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) union bosses from the hospital. Avola filed a “decertification petition” in late December with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), accompanied by hundreds of his coworkers’ signatures seeking an NLRB vote whether to remove the union.

Avola and his coworkers’ petition comes as a protracted strike MNA bosses ordered against St. Vincent Hospital has drawn to a close. Media reports indicate that union militants harassed and bullied nurses who returned to the hospital to care for patients during the over 300-day strike. Union partisans reportedly put photographs of working nurses on strike paraphernalia and took illicit pictures of nurses’ license plates. Despite credible reports of union harassment of nurses who exercised their right to work, high-profile elected officials including U.S. Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren expressed support for the union boss-ordered strike.

In response to inquiries from nurses impacted by the union bosses’ strike order, Foundation staff attorneys in March issued a legal notice informing St. Vincent nurses of their right to work during the strike and to cut off dues payments to the MNA hierarchy. The notice offered free legal aid to St. Vincent nurses who encountered union pushback in the exercise of their individual rights.

Foundation attorneys have helped nurses and hospital employees in several cases in recent years. In October, nurse Jeanette Geary won her decade-long case against United Nurses and Allied Professionals bosses in Rhode Island who ignored her right not to fund union lobbying. Foundation attorneys have also represented Swedish Medical Center employees in Seattle, a therapist who successfully decertified the union at Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas, Rush University Medical Center workers in Chicago, a nurse at Corpus Christi Medical Center in Texas, and others.

“It’s easy to see why Mr. Avola and his coworkers want to oust MNA operatives from St. Vincent Hospital: Union bosses forced nurses to endure a gruelingly long strike, while those who went back to work and refused to abandon their patients faced harassment and intimidation tactics,” observed National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Foundation staff attorneys will fight to ensure that St. Vincent hospital nurses can freely exercise their right to dispense with unwanted union ‘representation,’ and will battle any union boss attempts to hamper that right.”

Notice: Despite union boss claims, workers who spend 30 days or less on the job cannot be forced to pay any union dues or fees as a condition of employment

Washington, DC (December 14, 2021) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has published a special legal notice for workers in transportation, retail, foodservice, and other industries who have been hired temporarily to meet demand during the 2021 holiday season. The notice warns that union officials can and often do deceive temporary staff into joining or paying dues to a union with which they do not wish to associate, and details the rights that employees have to resist such illegal demands.

The notice also provides contact information for the Foundation’s staff attorneys so temporary workers can obtain free legal assistance in exercising their right to be free of unwanted union affiliation. In one instance, Foundation attorneys aided a Stockton, CA, seasonal UPS worker, who received a paycheck for $0 after UPS management deducted full union dues from his paycheck at the behest of Teamsters union officials.

The full notice is available in both English and Spanish here: https://www.nrtw.org/special-notice-for-all-seasonal-and-temporary-employees/.

“If you are a temporary worker in any state, regardless of whether it has Right to Work protections,” the notice reads, “you do not necessarily have to join a union or pay union fees as a condition of employment for your temporary job. Union officials and some employers may wrongly tell you it is necessary for you to join a union or pay union fees, but there are some stipulations.”

State Right to Work protections ensure that no private-sector worker can be forced to financially support a union just to stay employed. However, even in non-Right to Work states where private-sector employees can normally be compelled to pay a portion of union dues just to keep their jobs, the notice explains that seasonal workers “should understand first and foremost that if you are working for LESS THAN 30 DAYS on the job, then you are not legally obligated to pay union fees or join a union.”

The notice also urges temporary workers not to sign any documents authorizing union membership or permitting union officials to deduct dues directly out of their wages, explaining that forcing a worker to sign either kind of document is illegal. “Forced union membership could trap you into paying union dues and fees well after you have ended your seasonal employment,” the notice reads.

Finally, the notice encourages seasonal employees to reach out immediately to the Foundation’s legal team if they encounter pressure from their employer or union officials or have questions about their situation.

“American workers who step up during the holidays and go the extra mile to make the season special do not deserve to be subjected to union boss coercion, but Foundation staff attorneys have encountered countless situations in which greedy union bosses misled new workers who don’t understand their rights,” observed National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Seasonal workers should not hesitate to contact the Foundation if they believe they are being forced to fund or otherwise associate with an unwanted union in violation of their legal rights.”

RWDSU officials are also trying to reverse Alabama Amazon workers’ vote against unionization, & were recently successfully ousted by NYC car wash employees

Atlanta, GA (December 10, 2021) – National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix today slammed Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union Southeast Council (RWDSU) union officials for seeking to nullify McDonough, GA, Ecolab employees’ secret ballot vote to remove RWDSU from their workplace:

“RWDSU officials have demonstrated in Alabama and in other places across the country this year that they have a penchant for opposing the will of the same employees they claim to ‘represent.’ Now they’re using questionable charges against Ecolab management to block a clear employee vote against them.

“No American worker should be trapped under the control of a union they oppose. Foundation staff attorneys will continue to help the Ecolab workers until their right to dispense with unwanted union officials is vindicated.”

Ecolab employee Irvin Arnold spearheads the effort to kick out RWDSU bosses. In late October, with free Foundation legal aid, he submitted a petition signed by enough of his colleagues to prompt the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to conduct a decertification vote amongst his colleagues.

Arnold and his coworkers’ effort marks the second time Foundation attorneys have assisted workers in removing unwanted RWDSU officials in the past month alone. In October, Ervin Par of Queens, NY-based Main Street Car Wash submitted the second valid decertification petition in his and his coworkers’ three-year attempt to remove RWDSU bosses from their workplace. Rather than face an employee vote that would have likely ended in RWDSU’s defeat, its agents disclaimed interest in continuing their control over the car wash in early November.

The NLRB, the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal private-sector labor law and for adjudicating disputes between employers, unions, and individual workers, administered the vote among Arnold and his Ecolab coworkers on December 2, in which the employees voted against continued union control in the facility. The RWDSU is notably the same union that Bessemer, AL, Amazon employees rejected by a more than 2-to-1 margin during a highly publicized April 2021 union election.

According to Arnold’s original petition, the election was held among more than 50 Ecolab employees that were under RWDSU officials’ monopoly control, including “reliability technicians…maintenance leads, production associates, mixers, bulk bay spotter/loaders, logistics associates, production team coaches, warehouse lead workers and label control associates.”

RWDSU officials are now trying to overturn the employees’ vote by alleging that Ecolab officials interfered in the employees’ effort to get rid of union bosses. Filing these objections allows the union to remain in control in the workplace until the NLRB investigates the union’s claims.

The Ecolab and Main Street Car Wash decertification attempts come as RWDSU officials continue their efforts to install themselves at the Bessemer, AL, Amazon plant, despite the overwhelming employee vote against them. Litigation continues over whether RWDSU lawyers can nullify the Amazon workers’ vote in which barely 12% of eligible voters indicated support for the union bosses’ monopoly “representation.”

Suit: In response to religious accommodation request, union officials kept demanding dues, sent ‘remedial church readings’ to employee, priest

Clarksville, TN (November 24, 2021) – J & J Worldwide Service employee Dorothy Frame, who works at Fort Campbell’s Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, is hitting Laborers’ International Union (LIUNA) officials at her workplace with a federal lawsuit for religious discrimination. She asserts that union officials are making her violate her Catholic religious beliefs by forcing her to fund the union’s activities through dues payments, despite her opposition to the union’s stance on abortion. Frame is receiving free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

According to her lawsuit, Frame in July 2019 “sent a letter informing [LIUNA] of the conflict between her religious beliefs and the requirement that she join or pay the Union.” Tennessee has a Right to Work law ensuring that private sector workers inside the state’s borders cannot be compelled to pay dues as a condition of employment. However, Fort Campbell is a “federal enclave” not subject to state law, and J & J management and LIUNA union bosses maintain a contract forcing employees to pay a portion of union dues to keep their jobs.

Frame’s July 2019 letter requested a religious accommodation, her lawsuit says, and included a message from her parish priest backing her position. Federal law prohibits unions from discriminating against employees on the basis of religion, and accommodations of religious objections to dues payment often consist of permitting a dissenting worker to instead contribute the dues amount to a charity.

“Ms. Frame believes that abortion is a grave sin,” her lawsuit details. “She believes joining or financially supporting the Unions would make her complicit in that sin because she believes that the Unions support and promote abortion. Thus, she believes that any money the Unions collect from her makes her complicit in sin and violates her religious beliefs.”

A response to Frame’s letter from a LIUNA lawyer came the following month, her lawsuit notes, criticizing her accommodation request and demanding that she “prove that her beliefs ‘[]meet the standard for a “legitimate justification.”’” The union lawyer also claimed that “Ms. Frame’s understanding of her faith was inferior to his own understanding of her faith” and even closed the letter by “sending Ms. Frame – and her priest – remedial church readings.” One of Frame’s attorneys sent a letter in September 2019 demonstrating how the accommodation request conformed to various church teachings, but nonetheless LIUNA bosses continued to take dues from Frame’s paycheck until November 2019.

Frame filed a discrimination charge against LIUNA with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in December 2019. Even after EEOC proceedings and additional letters from her attorney demonstrating the union’s various forms of support for abortion, Frame’s lawsuit explains, union officials still refused to accommodate her beliefs. LIUNA bosses also “refuse to return any money they collected from Ms. Frame” after she had requested an accommodation.

Frame’s attorneys have now taken the fight to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The suit charges LIUNA with religious discrimination for its officials’ “refusing to accommodate her religious beliefs” and “deducting money from her pay when they knew that doing so would violate her religious beliefs.” The complaint also charges LIUNA with quid pro quo religious harassment for telling Frame “she must pay the Unions money and violate her religious beliefs,” or be fired.

Frame’s lawsuit asks that the court declare “she has the right to a religious accommodation that alleviates her obligation to join or support the Unions” and that LIUNA return all money they seized from her wages in violation of her religious beliefs, plus pay “damages for emotional pain, suffering, and mental anguish that she suffered because the Unions repeatedly challenged and disparaged her religious beliefs.”

“LIUNA officials have put their arrogance and callousness on full display by forcing Ms. Frame to choose between losing her job and severely compromising her religious beliefs,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Denying an individual a simple religious accommodation is a clear violation of federal law, and Foundation attorneys will fight for Ms. Frame until she gets one.”

“However, Big Labor’s government-granted privilege to force fees out of workers as a job condition allowed this kind of abuse to happen – no American worker should be forced to subsidize unwanted union activities just to keep his or her job,” Mix added.