Workers officially free of unwanted union boss “representation” after every worker votes against union in National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Decertification Election

Fort Bliss, TX (March 6, 2023) – Following a unanimous employee decertification vote, Grounds Management Incorporated (also known as GMI National) employees are now officially free of unwanted monopoly bargaining “representation” by Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 351 union bosses. Grounds Management worker Antonio Eduardo Reza, who united every one of his fellow coworkers in opposing the union, received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation in exercising the employees’ right to hold the decertification vote.

The union decertification election was administered by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on February 15. Because a full week has now passed since the 17-0 unanimous vote without any objections made by union officials, the result is final and the workers are officially union-free.

Although the NLRB’s union decertification process is still prone to union boss-created roadblocks, Foundation-backed reforms the NLRB adopted in 2020 have made it somewhat easier for workers to remove unwanted union officials.

Before the reforms, for example, union officials could stop workers who requested a decertification vote from casting ballots by filing so-called “blocking charges,” which often contain unverified and unrelated allegations of employer actions. The 2020 rule changes improved the process so employees can at least have a chance to vote before any allegations surrounding the election are resolved.

Worker interest in removing unwanted unions is up nationwide, with National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys fielding numerous requests for free legal assistance in decertification cases, like the one brought by Reza and his coworkers. The process should be simple, with federal law stating that workers can hold decertification votes in most instances as long as they have a petition with the signatures of at least 30% of workers in a bargaining unit. However, rules created by NLRB bureaucrats combined with legal tactics deployed by union lawyers often mean workers face legal hurdles in just getting the opportunity to hold a vote whether to remove an unwanted union.

The NLRB’s own data show that, currently, a unionized private sector worker is more than twice as likely to be involved in a decertification effort as a nonunion worker is to be involved in a unionization campaign, with one analysis finding decertification petitions up 42% last year.

“Although we’re glad Antonio Reza and his coworkers were able to free themselves of a union that they all opposed, this case only demonstrates just how outrageous it is that the Biden NLRB is moving to roll back reforms that make it easier for workers to exercise their right under federal law to vote out a union they oppose,” observed Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “If the Biden-appointed majority on the NLRB has its way, just one unfounded allegation by union bosses will be enough to block a vote like this for months or more, even though every single worker wanted nothing to do with the union’s so-called ‘representation.’”

Legal brief: SCOTUS ruled that public sector union activities are political in nature, “official time” arrangement mandates taxpayer support for union politics

Austin, TX (March 2, 2023) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has just submitted an amicus brief in Roger Borgelt v. City of Austin, a case before the Texas Supreme Court. The case challenges a scheme in which the City of Austin directs taxpayer dollars to Austin Firefighters Association (IAFF) union officials to conduct union business on so-called “official time.”

The petitioners, including the State of Texas, maintain that this arrangement violates the Texas Constitution’s Gift Clauses, which forbid payouts of taxpayer funds that do not serve a legitimate public purpose. The case is currently on appeal from the Texas Third Court of Appeals.

The Foundation’s brief argues that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Foundation-won 2018 Janus v. AFSCME case shows why the “official time” scheme runs afoul of the Gift Clauses. The High Court ruled in Janus that forcing public sector workers to fund any union activities as a condition of employment violates the First Amendment, and that union dues can only be deducted from a public sector worker’s paycheck with his or her freely given consent.

Requiring taxpayers to fund union activities “conflicts with the Supreme Court’s reasons for holding in Janus that it violates the First Amendment to require public employees to subsidize union activities,” the brief says.

Landmark Janus Decision Shows How Union Bosses Use “Official Time” to Prop Up Union Politics

The Foundation points out in its amicus brief the Janus Court’s holding that union monopoly bargaining activities “constitute speech and petitioning on matters of political…concern,” and that by funneling taxpayer money into such speech “the City is effectively paying individuals to lobby the City for a private advocacy organization and its members.”

“The notion that this political advocacy predominantly serves a public purpose, as opposed to predominantly benefiting the private organization, is untenable,” the brief reads.

The brief also refutes an assertion by the Third Court that “official time” payments made by the city are actually part of union officials’ compensation for their normal job duties. This defies Janus’ reasoning that public employees who are also union officials “do not act as government agents pursuing their official job duties when they act as union officials.”

“For example, in granting paid leave to employee Bob Nicks to act as the Union’s president, the City is not paying Mr. Nicks for his services as a firefighter or as a public servant,” the brief explains. “The City is paying Mr. Nicks for his services as an agent of a private organization—the Union—in violation of the Gifts Clauses.”

The brief also counters the lower court’s finding that taxpayer subsidies for “official time” are needed to maintain harmonious relations with the union. Just as the Supreme Court’s Janus decision rejected that argument as a permissible reason for forcing workers to subsidize union activities related to monopoly bargaining, here similarly union officials can also “exercise their powers as exclusive representatives without the taxpayer subsidy of [official time],” says the brief.

Moreover, the Foundation’s brief explains that this union argument is troubling on a much deeper level: “If respondents contend that Union officials would disrupt City services if they did not receive association business leave, that would make the benefit akin to the City paying protection money” to union officials, reads the brief.

Union Bosses Are Not Entitled to Public Funds to Pursue Union Interests

“The Texas Supreme Court must recognize that union officials are not entitled to a slice of taxpayer funds to ‘bargain’ against public interests,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Texas’ Gift Clauses forbid the payout of public funds for activities that don’t have a tangible public benefit, and it’s hard to think of an arrangement that violates the Clauses more plainly than letting union bosses pursue private union business on the taxpayer dime.”

“While Janus now protects public employees around the country from being forced to fund union activities and speech against their will, unfortunately many states and municipalities across the country permit union bosses to subsidize those same inherently political activities using direct payment of tax dollars,” Mix added. “If union bosses cannot convince rank-and-file workers to voluntarily fund such activities as Janus requires, they should re-examine their priorities, not seek to force taxpayers to pay for what public employees won’t.”

Settlements require union officials to immediately recognize workers who refuse to pay for union politics, Penn Aluminum officials must attend mandatory training

Murphysboro, IL (February 28, 2023) – Penn Aluminum International employee Mary Beck has successfully forced International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 702 union officials to stop illegally demanding money from her paycheck. National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys represented her for free before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Beck hit both the IBEW union and her employer with federal charges in June 2022, maintaining that union dues were coming out of her paycheck under a defective contract, and that union officials had ignored her resignation of union membership and her request to pay only the amount of dues necessary to keep her job under federal law. She added additional charges in August 2022, stating that union officials had acknowledged her demand, but threatened to get her fired if she didn’t pay an unspecified amount of money to the union.

Beck filed charges to defend her rights under the Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision, which forbids union officials from having employees in non-Right to Work states like Illinois fired for refusal to pay for union politics and other expenses outside the union’s “representation” functions.

Because Illinois lacks Right to Work protections for its private sector employees, union officials can compel workers in facilities under union control to pay only the reduced amount of union fees under CWA v. Beck as a condition of employment. In contrast, in Right to Work states, union membership and all union financial support are strictly voluntary.

Beck’s Foundation-provided attorneys have now won settlements requiring IBEW union officials going forward to immediately recognize both membership resignations and employee requests to pay reduced union fees under CWA v. Beck. IBEW bosses must also pay back to Beck all money seized illegally from her paycheck. The settlements also stipulate that Penn Aluminum management attend mandatory training on how to properly respond to employee requests to end union membership and refrain from full dues deductions.

IBEW Union Bosses Blew Off Worker Requests for Months, Then Threatened Her Termination

Beck’s charges stated that IBEW union officials didn’t acknowledge her January 2022 and March 2022 requests to end union membership and stop full dues deductions until July 2022, when they finally sent her a copy of the union contract and ended dues deductions. However, they still demanded she pay an indefinite amount of union fees to keep her job. Beck’s August 2022 charge also pointed out that the union contract did not contain language allowing IBEW bosses to take advantage of their legal privilege to force all employees to pay an amount of union fees as a condition of employment.

Union officials in an August 9 letter threatened to terminate Beck by August 15 if she didn’t pay union fees. “The letter failed to provide Charging Party with the exact amount the Union claims she owes or a reasonable opportunity for her to pay those alleged fees,” Beck’s amended charge says. Both are required by longstanding precedents.

Beck’s charges argued that the union’s continued deduction of dues after her March letter and demands for union fees without a valid contract in place violated her rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Illinois Case Shows That Federal Labor Law Doesn’t Respect Worker Free Choice

“We’re pleased that Ms. Beck has successfully vindicated her right to opt out of paying for union politics and other activities she doesn’t support,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “However, as her case demonstrates, federal law still lets union officials stifle full freedom of association for Ms. Beck and millions of employees across the country who work in non-Right to Work states.”

“The Foundation-won CWA v. Beck decision gives workers in non-Right to Work states at least the opportunity to stop paying for the ideological activities of a union they oppose. But no American worker should be forced to sacrifice a part of their pay for any unwanted union activities, including union bosses’ so-called ‘representation’ which may actually work against employee interests,” Mix added. “Every American worker deserves the protection of a Right to Work law.”