Special Right to Work Podcast: Election Aftermath and the Looming Union Assault on Our Freedoms
In this special episode of the National Right to Work Podcast, National Right to Work Committee and Foundation President Mark Mix tells host Stefan Gleason about the ramifications of the power-shifting election.
New Right to Work Podcast: Compulsory Unionism and Public Education
In the latest episode, Foundation VP Stefan Gleason sits down with Matt Brouillette of the Pennsylvania-based Commonwealth Foundation to discuss the compulsory unionism stranglehold over much of America’s educational system. Check it out:
You can listen to the entirety of The Commonwealth Foundation’s radio program here.
You can also listen to the Foundation’s podcast via iTunes or manually subscribe to the feed.
[Note: Some Firefox users have reported some audio distortion when using the player above. To ensure the podcast plays correctly just click here to listen.]
Worker Seeks Injunction to Prevent Unwanted Union from Acquiring Confidential Personal Information
This week, National Right to Work Foundation attorneys filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida challenging the quid pro quo between Mardi Gras Gaming and UNITE HERE Local 355 union bosses:
Boca Raton, Florida (November 6, 2008) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, an employee at a Mardi Gras Gaming facility has filed a federal lawsuit to prevent UNITE HERE Local 355 union officials from obtaining illegal assistance in pressuring workers to unionize – including possession of workers’ personal addresses and other private information.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleges that union officials violated the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) by entering into an agreement with Mardi Gras Gaming that allows the union access to information about nonunion employees, use of the employer’s property for organizing, and control over the employer’s communications with workers. The LMRA expressly forbids employers from giving “any money or other thing of value” to unions.
The LMRA’s prohibition on transfers of things of value from employers to unions is intended to prevent deals that induce union officials to place their own interests or the interests of employers above the workers themselves.
Read the rest of the Foundation’s press release here.
Worker Seeks Injunction to Prevent Unwanted Union from Acquiring Confidential Personal Information
Boca Raton, Florida (November 6, 2008) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, an employee at a Mardi Gras Gaming facility has filed a federal lawsuit to prevent UNITE HERE Local 355 union officials from obtaining illegal assistance in pressuring workers to unionize – including possession of workers’ personal addresses and other private information.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleges that union officials violated the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) by entering into an agreement with Mardi Gras Gaming that allows the union access to information about nonunion employees, use of the employer’s property for organizing, and control over the employer’s communications with workers. The LMRA expressly forbids employers from giving “any money or other thing of value” to unions.
The LMRA’s prohibition on transfers of things of value from employers to unions is intended to prevent deals that induce union officials to place their own interests or the interests of employers above the workers themselves.
The Mardi Gras Gaming facility is not yet unionized, but in August of 2004, management entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with Local 355. In return for a union guarantee not to picket, boycott, or strike against the facility, Mardi Gras Gaming agreed to hand over employees’ personal contact information – including home addresses – to union organizers, grant union officials access to Mardi Gras facilities for the purpose of organizing, and to refrain from requesting a federally-supervised secret ballot election to determine whether its employees actually want to unionize. This quid pro quo arrangement is of substantial monetary value to Local 355, as it would dramatically reduce the cost of successfully unionizing workers at the Mardi Gras facility.
Such so-called “neutrality agreements” between companies and unions give union organizers license to browbeat and intimidate workers into acceding to unionization. Armed with employees’ home addresses and access to company facilities, union officials frequently harass workers on and off the job until they agree to sign cards that are then counted as “votes” for unionization. In other Foundation-assisted cases, employees have testified to and documented the pressure, bribery, and outright fraud union organizers use to obtain signed authorization cards.
“UNITE HERE bosses made a secret deal to force Mardi Gras workers into the union whether they like it or not,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “We intend to shut down this major violation of federal law and employee freedom.”
Foundation Action: Supreme Court Justices Hammer Union Lawyers During Oral Arguments
The cover story of the hot-off-the-press November-December issue of Foundation Action recaps the exciting oral arguments of the Foundation’s Locke v. Karass case, which was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in early October.
Read the whole story here (pdf) and sign up today for a free print subscription.
To receive the entire issue via email, just type your email address into the box in the top right corner of this page.
NC Identity Theft Update – Judge Smacks Down Union Motion to Dismiss
In June, Foundation staff attorneys filed suit against Communications Workers of America (CWA) union officials on behalf of several North Carolina citizens. 16 current and former AT&T employees from Burlington, NC alleged that union operatives intentionally displayed their confidential information – including social security numbers – in a public forum, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft and fraud.
Union lawyers responded by filing a motion for dismissal, but the judge wasn’t buying it. Although Judge Albert Diaz dismissed the invasion of privacy complaint filed against the union, he did not dismiss the Foundation’s main charges under the North Carolina Identity Theft Protection Act and the the Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Diaz’s ruling was the first ever published decision issued under the North Carolina Identity Theft Protection Act. For a more in-depth description of the case, check out this entry from the North Carolina Business Litigation Report. The Foundation’s original press release can be found online here. To watch the Foundation’s video report on union identity theft in North Carolina, click here.
NRTW Podcast, Episode 3 – What’s This Whole “Card Check” Thing REALLY About?
Vice President Stefan Gleason sits down with Foundation Staff Attorney Glenn Taubman to discuss the ugly realities of coercive card-check organizing drives and Big Labor’s efforts to make this process for unionization mandatory; Listen here:
For additional background, check out this op-ed from Foundation President Mark Mix.
You can also listen to the Foundation’s podcast via iTunes or manually subscribe to the feed.
[Note: Firefox users have reported that the audio is distorted when using the player above. To ensure the podcast plays correctly just click here to listen.]
Foundation Action: Full September-October Newsletter is Now Available Online
If you follow Freedom@Work regularly, you know we’ve recently mentioned several Foundation Action articles from our latest newsletter. Now the entire thing is available online, free of charge. If you’re interested in an up-to-date look at our efforts to combat compulsory unionism, download Foundation Action today (.pdf).
Alternatively, you can sign up for a free print subscription or submit your email address at the top right corner of the page for a digital copy of the newsletter.
National Right to Work in the Wall Street Journal: Union Power Grabs Could Turn Market Crash Into Depression
Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation and the National Right to Work Committee, has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal on the disastrous economic implications of handing Big Labor more forced unionism power:
By the mid-1930s, the U.S. economy appeared to be climbing out of the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), which had bottomed out at 41 in 1932, was advancing. It increased 73% from the beginning of 1935 through the end of 1936, when it hit 180. The number of unemployed, 13 million in 1933, dropped to 9.5 million in 1935 and 7.6 million in 1936.
Then, in 1937, the DJIA plunged 33% in what is often called "a depression within a depression." Joblessness skyrocketed.
A principal factor in the meltdown that year was the U.S. Supreme Court’s surprise 5-4 decision in early April to uphold the constitutionality of the Wagner Act, which had passed two years earlier. This measure, which is still the basis of our labor relations regime, authorized union officials to seek and obtain the power to act as the "exclusive" (that is, the monopoly) bargaining agent over all the front-line employees, including union nonmembers as well as members, in a unionized workplace.
[…]
If the mislabeled "Employee Free Choice Act," becomes law, it will likely have a similar effect on the economy as the original Wagner Act, transforming what could have been a recovery into a lengthy, deep recession, or worse.
Read the whole thing here.
What the op-ed didn’t have the space to get to is the card check’s negative impact on employee freedom. As we’ve explained elsewhere, allowing union operatives to publicly browbeat workers into signing away their rights to self-representation would open the door to intimidation and coercion. Because of this, the Foundation is preparing for a flood of cases if card check becomes the law of the land.
For a good primer on the dangers of card-check organizing drives, check out this Foundation video report.
Musician Unions Hit with Federal Lawsuit for Blacklisting Nonunion Orchestra Musicians
American Federation of Musicians (AFM) union bosses have a troubled history of intimidating nonmember musicians. Now the Foundation is suing several local affiliates in California to prevent future instances of union discrimination. Here’s an excerpt from our latest press release:
Today, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys filed a lawsuit in federal court against the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Locals 7, 47, and 581 unions on behalf of seven nonmember musicians whose careers were seriously damaged by union militants.
Filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the suit alleges that union officials conspired to blacklist musicians in retaliation for resigning from formal union membership. Union officials are accused of violating their “duty of fair representation” by refusing nonmember musicians access to a rehearsal hall, hindering their efforts to find employment, and enshrining certain discriminatory policies in contracts with several local symphonies.
Read the whole thing here. You can also check out the Foundation’s video on union intimidation and the entertainment industry here.
