Nurse Threatened with Termination for Refusing to Join Union Ranks
Chicago, IL (April 20, 2011) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Chicago nurse has filed federal unfair labor practice charges against the National Nurses United (NNU) union. The charges allege that NNU officials stopped her from opting out of certain union dues and attempted to force her to join the union.
Jennifer Heyd, a University of Chicago Medical Center nurse, was first told that she had to authorize union dues deductions and sign a NNU membership card in November of 2010. Although Heyd informed union officials that she did not want to join the union or pay full dues, NNU bosses told her that she would be fired if she did not become a member or authorize dues deductions.
Because Illinois lacks a Right to Work law, employees can be forced to pay certain union dues as a condition of employment. However, the Foundation-won Supreme Court precedent Communication Workers v. Beck holds that no employee can be charged for union activities unrelated to workplace bargaining, including dues collected for members-only events or political activism. Moreover, no worker can be forced to join a union as a condition of employment.
In January 2011, Heyd attempted to contact union officials to explain her desire to refrain from union membership. Although she received no response, Heyd contacted the union again in February to restate her opposition to joining the union and paying full dues. A union official then informed Heyd that she had to sign a membership card and authorize union dues deductions or be fired. According to the union, the payroll department would take care of Heyd’s Beck objection.
Despite this assurance and the fact that Heyd sent a letter to the union restating her Beck objection, the NNU has never responded to Heyd’s request to opt out of full dues. Moreover, other nurses in the bargaining unit were also informed that they had to join the union or be fired.
Heyd’s charges will now be investigated by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
“Hard-working nurses shouldn’t be forced to pay tribute to union officials or join an organization they have no interest in supporting just to keep a job,” said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director for the National Right to Work Foundation. “In the midst of a controversial strike, it’s particularly important that nurses be made aware of their right to resign from union membership at any time, after which they can choose to return to work free from retaliatory union strike fines.”
Legal Notice: Foundation Win Forces Union Officials to Inform Florida Teachers of their Rights
With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a Florida teacher won a settlement from the state’s Public Employees Relations Commission that orders United Teachers of Dade (UTD) union officials to stop discriminating against teachers who don’t belong to the union. Miami-Dade schools are also required to post the following notice to inform teachers of their rights:
For more on the Foundation’s efforts to help Florida teachers, see our press release from last September.
Gas Utility Worker Seeks to Turn Off Forced Union Dues Pipeline for Union Boss Politics
Gas Utility Worker Seeks to Turn Off Forced Union Dues Pipeline for Union Boss Politics
West Virginia needs Right to Work law to protect workers from forced unionism abuses
Clarksburg, West Virginia (March 31, 2011) – A Dominion Hope utility worker has filed federal charges against a local union after union officials illegally attempted to force him into full-dues-paying union membership.
With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys, Dominion Hope employee Jeremy Dimick of West Union filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Wednesday.
Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) Local 69 union officials enjoy monopoly bargaining privileges over Dominion Hope’s employees. In November 2010, Dimick 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.
Gas Utility Worker Seeks to Turn Off Forced Union Dues Pipeline for Union Boss Politics
Clarksburg, West Virginia (March 31, 2011) – A Dominion Hope utility worker has filed federal charges against a local union after union officials illegally attempted to force him into full-dues-paying union membership.
With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys, Dominion Hope employee Jeremy Dimick of West Union filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Wednesday.
Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) Local 69 union officials enjoy monopoly bargaining privileges over Dominion Hope’s employees. In November 2010, Dimick 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.
However, because West Virginia does not have a Right to Work law, workers who refrain from formal union membership can still be forced to pay a part of union dues as a condition of employment, but cannot be compelled to pay the portion used for the union’s political, lobbying, and member-only activities.
Despite Dimick’s letter, UWUA Local 69 union officials continued to extract full union dues from his paycheck. Then in December, union officials ordered him to file another objection letter and refused to provide him with a legally-required breakdown of union expenditures that had evidence that it was actually verified by an independent audit. Dimick contests the part of union fees used for forcing workers in different industries in the region into union ranks.
Meanwhile, Dimick requested that the UWUA Local 69 union hierarchy respect his First Amendment rights of free speech and let him remove the union logo patch from his uniform. Union officials refuse to honor his request.
“UWUA union officials are not only forcing workers to financially associate with their union, they are also forcing workers to act as walking billboards for an organization they do not support and want nothing to do with,” said Patrick Semmens, National Right to Work Foundation legal information director. “West Virginia desperately need a Right to Work law to protect workers from the very union bosses that claim to care about workers’ rights but clearly don’t.”
If enacted, a state 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.
Right to Work in The Daily Caller: “In Wisconsin, Big Labor politicians help make Right to Work case”
Writing in The Daily Caller, Right to Work President Mark Mix explains how Big Labor activism in Wisconsin has dramatized the issue of forced union dues:
. . . millions of Americans are now learning about the bitterness with which union-label politicians are defending their forced dues-funded campaign machines. And now citizens are beginning to understand more clearly than ever before why no union official, whether government or private-sector, should ever have been granted forced-dues privileges in the first place, and why it is absolutely necessary to revoke those privileges in order to clean up our political system.
Thanks to the 14 union-backed Senate Democrats’ attempt to flee the state to deny S.B. 11 proponents a quorum — and the resulting legal battle over the bill — the effort to restore the right to work for most Badger State public employees remains in limbo for now. But the outrageous antics of union-boss politicians like Mr. Hintz and Mr. Danou could prove to be very costly to Big Labor over the long run, and not just in Wisconsin.
Click here to read the whole thing. For more on the Wisconsin labor fight, check out Mix’s recent appearance on Fox News.
Right to Work Foundation Submits FOIA Request to Uncover Extent of National Labor Relations Board’s Google Ads Campaign
Washington, DC (March 21, 2011) – The National Right to Work Foundation, a charitable organization that provides free legal assistance to employees nationwide, submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), asking for information about a series of Google Ads placed by the NLRB from 2008 to 2011.
According to an earlier NLRB statement, the Board received a free Google Ads trial in 2008 and has since discontinued the program. However, other reports indicate that NLRB Google Ads appeared as recently as February of this year.
Moreover, these ads only contained information about workers’ ability to organize or join unions. No record of ads about workers’ rights to refrain from union activities or remove a union from their workplace has been found.
In the wake of former SEIU lawyer Craig Becker’s recess appointment to the Board, numerous media outlets have questioned the NLRB’s ability to impartially administer labor law.
Unfortunately, the NLRB’s Google Ads campaign does nothing to dispel these fears. Foundation attorneys are concerned that the NLRB’s ad buys publicized information about workers’ rights to organize or join a union without providing equally important information about the rights of employees to refrain from union membership or eject unwanted unions from their workplaces.
The Foundation’s FOIA request seeks all documented business transactions between the Board and Google related to online ad buys. Foundation attorneys believe that this information is necessary to determine the extent of the NLRB’s pro-Big Labor bias and to inform the public of how the Board’s budget is being spent.
“We’ve raised persistent questions about the impartiality of the NLRB that have yet to be addressed, and what looks like a selective information campaign through Google Ads is another example of this trend,” said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director for the National Right to Work Foundation. “We call upon the NLRB to immediately release any and all information related to this ad campaign to address public concerns about its perceived pro-Big Labor bias.”
Study: Forced Unionism Hurts Young Workers The Most
In 2009, The Wall Street Journal observed that workers are fleeing forced-unionism states for better job opportunities with their Right to Work neighbors. Now, a study of U.S. Census Bureau statistics from the National Institute for Labor Relations Research indicates that young workers – a demographic that drives economic growth – overwhelmingly favor Right to Work states to further their career prospects:
Twenty-two states currently have Right to Work laws on the books.3 Unless a state has a Right to Work law, federal law authorizes the imposition of forced union dues and fees on its private-sector employees.
In the 17 non-Western Right to Work states, the aggregate 25-34 year-old population increased from 12.965 million to 14.602 million, or 12.7%, over the past decade. Meanwhile, in the 20 non- Western forced-unionism states, the aggregate 25-34 year-old population fell from 16.807 million to 16.036 million, or 4.6%. Western Right to Work states’ total young-adult population grew by 47.0%, compared to Western non-Right to Work states’ 8.3% increase. Even excluding slow-growth California,Western forced-unionism states’ increase was barely more than half that of Western Right to Work states.
In the midst of a prolonged recession, the Institute’s findings also indicate that the success of Right to Work states provides a critical economic safety valve. By encouraging the creation of more jobs, Right to Work protections provide career opportunities for young employees that otherwise might not have existed.
The case for Right to Work has always rested on the importance of safeguarding individual workers’ rights, but the economic benefits of protecting worker freedom are also self-evident. It’s one more reason why states across the country are now considering Right to Work laws.
Right to Work on Fox News: Why Union Monopoly Bargaining Doesn’t Work for the Public Sector
Last week, Right to Work President Mark Mix sat down with Judge Andrew Napolitano of Fox News to discuss the protests in Wisconsin and the problems of union monopoly bargaining in the public sector. Check out the video below:
Army Wives Driver Wins over $55k in Lost Wages After Teamster Union Boss Blacklisting
Army Wives Driver Wins over $55k in Lost Wages After Teamster Union Boss Blacklisting
Teamster union bosses’ ugly retaliation prevents employee from making a living
Washington, DC (March 17, 2011) – An ABC Studios movie/television driver has won over $55,000 in lost income after Teamster union officials refused to allow him to do his job for nearly a year.
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys helped the driver win the case before a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge in Charleston, South Carolina.
Teamster Local 509 union officials currently enjoy exclusive bargaining privileges with ABC Studios in Charleston – and thus have a monopoly bargaining agreement with ABC that forces workers to go through Teamster Local 509’s hiring hall in order to obtain a job.
However, because Local 509 union members were working on other television and movie productions, Thomas Coghill – who was from Wilmington, North Carolina and a member of Teamster Local 391 – worked on the set of the Charleston-based Army Wives television series. Coghill worked during the show’s first two seasons beginning in 2008 as a makeup truck driver.
However, as more Local 509 union members became available to work on the production of Army Wives, a dispute over who should be eligible to work on the set of Army Wives erupted between various Teamster union officials and Coghill was removed from Local 509’s “Movie Referral List” because he was not a member of Local 509. Meanwhile, Local 509 union members continue to receive preferential treatment in job placement on the set of Army Wives.
Army Wives Driver Wins over $55k in Lost Wages After Teamster Union Boss Blacklisting
Washington, DC (March 17, 2011) – An ABC Studios movie/television driver has won over $55,000 in lost income after Teamster union officials refused to allow him to do his job for nearly a year.
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys helped the driver win the case before a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge in Charleston, South Carolina.
Teamster Local 509 union officials currently enjoy exclusive bargaining privileges with ABC Studios in Charleston – and thus have a monopoly bargaining agreement with ABC that forces workers to go through Teamster Local 509’s hiring hall in order to obtain a job.
However, because Local 509 union members were working on other television and movie productions, Thomas Coghill – who was from Wilmington, North Carolina and a member of Teamster Local 391 – worked on the set of the Charleston-based Army Wives television series. Coghill worked during the show’s first two seasons beginning in 2008 as a makeup truck driver.
However, as more Local 509 union members became available to work on the production of Army Wives, a dispute over who should be eligible to work on the set of Army Wives erupted between various Teamster union officials and Coghill was removed from Local 509’s “Movie Referral List” because he was not a member of Local 509. Meanwhile, Local 509 union members continue to receive preferential treatment in job placement on the set of Army Wives.
Federal law prohibits union bosses who operate an exclusive union hiring hall from barring employees who are not a member of that union from gaining employment at a workplace.
With free legal assistance from the National Right Work Foundation, Coghill pursued federal unfair labor practice charges against the Teamster Local 509 union bosses’ discrimination. A regional NLRB administrative law judge ruled in Coghill’s favor late last week, and ordered the Teamster Local 509 union hierarchy to pay Coghill $55,467.62 in lost wages (plus interest) and post a notice of employees’ rights in the workplace.
“In this tough economy, it is unconscionable that Teamster Local 509 union bosses would inflict such petty and disgusting discrimination on someone working to put food on the table” said Patrick Semmens, National Right to Work Foundation legal information director. “To prevent these types of ugly forced unionism abuses from occurring in the future, entertainment industry union bosses should be stripped of their government-granted special privileges to force workers under union boss control in order to get or keep a job.”
