West Boca Medical Center Nurses Challenge Corrupt Agreement between SEIU and Hospital
West Boca Medical Center Nurses Challenge Corrupt Agreement between SEIU and Hospital
Nurses who oppose forced unionization of workplace suffer from viewpoint discrimination
Boca Raton, FL (October 10, 2012) – A local nurse has filed a federal charge against West Boca Medical Center and its parent company for enacting a secret deal that discriminates against the nurses and gives Service Employees International Union (SEIU) operatives preferential access to the facility.
With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Registered Nurse Jenna Orlando filed the charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Tampa.
According to the charge, SEIU union officials entered into a “neutrality agreement” with West Boca Medical Center and its parent company, Tenet Healthcare Corporation. The agreement successfully greased the skids for the nurses unionization.
Rhode Island School of Design Technician Combats Illegal Union Boss Intimidation and Threats
Rhode Island School of Design Technician Combats Illegal Union Boss Intimidation and Threats
Union officials refuse to follow Supreme Court precedents
Providence, RI (October 17, 2012) – With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a Rhode Island School of Design technician has filed federal charges against a local union for violating his rights.
Robert Vennerbeck of Providence filed the federal charge against the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Technical Association union with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Boston.
Vennerbeck resigned formal union membership and exercised his right to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership as upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Foundation-won Communications Workers v. Beck case. Under Beck, workers have the right to opt out of paying for union activities unrelated to workplace bargaining, such as members-only events and political lobbying.
West Boca Medical Center Nurses Challenge Corrupt Agreement between SEIU and Hospital
Boca Raton, FL (October 10, 2012) – A local nurse has filed a federal charge against West Boca Medical Center and its parent company for enacting a secret deal that discriminates against the nurses and gives Service Employees International Union (SEIU) operatives preferential access to the facility.
With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Registered Nurse Jenna Orlando filed the charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Tampa.
According to the charge, SEIU union officials entered into a “neutrality agreement” with West Boca Medical Center and its parent company, Tenet Healthcare Corporation. The agreement successfully greased the skids for the nurses unionization.
However, a tenacious group of nurses are seeking to petition the NLRB for a secret-ballot election to remove the unwanted union. While the so-called neutrality agreement gives SEIU union officials wide-ranging access to employee break rooms, lounges, bulletin boards, and other company facilities, nurses who oppose the union hierarchy are being denied equal access. Tenet even changed workplace procedures to deny off-duty nurses from entering the premises.
Nurses from across the country are challenging neutrality agreements signed by Tenet management. Recently, a group of nurses in McAllen, Texas filed for a decertification election with the NLRB and in July 2012 successfully voted a union out of their hospital. Just last week, two nurses in El Paso filed federal charges against Tenet and the California Nurses Association-affiliated National Nurses Organizing Committee union challenging a similar discriminatory agreement.
“So-called ‘neutrality agreements’ like this one between SEIU union officials and hospital management are hardly neutral: They give union organizers license to browbeat and intimidate workers into acceding to unionization,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Tag-teamed by union bosses and corporate executives who abandon their employees to gain what will likely be very short term union boss favors, these nurses have been stripped of their rights to organize against forced unionism in their workplace.”
“Medical professionals shouldn’t be subjected to backroom deals that give union operatives preferential treatment at the expense of their workplace rights.”
NLRB Subpoenas Foundation Attorney Assisting Latino Express Workers Who Wish to Oust Unwanted Union
Chicago, IL October 16, 2012 – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has frozen out Latino Express workers from participating in a dispute between their employer and Teamsters Local 777 that will determine whether they must accept an unwanted union in their workplace. Meanwhile, the NLRB subpoenaed the National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney advising these workers to testify during the Latino Express hearing, a move that prevented him from advising his clients, three of whom also appeared as witnesses.
Although a majority of Latino Express employees oppose the Teamsters’ presence and have signed a decertification petition to remove the union, Teamster lawyers filed charges with the NLRB alleging that the company unlawfully withdrew recognition of their union.
Despite union officials’ claims, a majority of workers oppose the Teamsters. Ramiro Lopez – the employee who submitted the petition for union decertification – and 36 other workers subsequently moved to intervene in the hearing to have their voices heard. However, an Administrative Law Judge denied this motion.
“Instead of promptly recognizing that a majority of Latino Express employees don’t want the Teamsters’ so-called ‘representation’, the NLRB is subjecting them to a lengthy legal struggle between the company and the union without even allowing them to participate,” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation.
What’s worse, the NLRB subpoenaed Lopez’s Foundation-provided attorney, Matthew Muggeridge, to testify at the hearing on the union’s charges. Muggeridge opposed the subpoena on the ground that it interferes with his representation of Lopez and several other Latino Express employees, but the NLRB’s acting general counsel’s attorney maintains that Muggeridge must testify and has threatened to enforce the subpoena in federal court.
By issuing the subpoena, the NLRB’s attorney also prevented Muggeridge from attending most of the hearing and advising any of the Latino Express employees, three of whom testified as witnesses. Subpoenaed witnesses are sequestered from participating in any part of a hearing other than their own testimony. Consequently, the NLRB’s subpoena effectively prevented Muggeridge from acting during the proceedings as an attorney for the Latino Express workers who retained him.
“Not content with blocking the employees’ decertification petition, the NLRB has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent Latino Express workers from participating in a hearing that will determine whether they are still forced to accept the Teamsters’ presence in their workplace. As if that weren’t enough, by calling their attorney as a witness, the Board has effectively taken away the employees’ legal representation,” continued Mix. “This subpoena reeks of retaliation by the NLRB against one of the Foundation staff attorneys who successfully intervened in the notorious Boeing prosecution for several nonunion South Carolina employees and helped expose the Board’s overreach in that case.”
Rhode Island School of Design Technician Combats Illegal Union Boss Intimidation and Threats
Providence, RI (October 17, 2012) – With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a Rhode Island School of Design technician has filed federal charges against a local union for violating his rights.
Robert Vennerbeck of Providence filed the federal charge against the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Technical Association union with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Boston.
Vennerbeck resigned formal union membership and exercised his right to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership as upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Foundation-won Communications Workers v. Beck case. Under Beck, workers have the right to opt out of paying for union activities unrelated to workplace bargaining, such as members-only events and political lobbying.
According to the NLRB charge, despite Vennerbeck’s repeated requests, union officials refuse to follow federal disclosure requirements outlined under Beck and its progeny. As such, union officials refused to provide him with an independently-audited financial breakdown of all forced-dues union expenditures and the opportunity to challenge the amount of forced union fees before an impartial decision maker. Additionally, the charge states that union officials refuse to provide a copy of the union’s monopoly bargaining agreement with his employer.
In late September, union officials demanded Vennerbeck be fired from his job in an apparent attempt to retaliate against him for exercising his rights.
“RISD Technical Association union bosses are seeking to punish a worker who has the temerity to not toe the union boss line and pay for the union bosses political agenda,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Rhode Island desperately needs a Right to Work law making union membership and dues payments strictly voluntary.”
Twenty-three states have Right to Work protections for employees. Public polling shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans and union members support the Right to Work principle of voluntary unionism.
Employees Continue to Defend Indiana’s New Right to Work Law against Spurious Union Legal Challenge
Lake County, IN (October 24, 2012) – A state court judge has denied a motion to dismiss a union legal challenge to Indiana’s newly-enacted Right to Work law. The case will now move forward for a decision on the merits of the union’s challenge.
Meanwhile, Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys plan to file another amicus curiae (‘friend of the court’) brief in support of the law for David Brubaker and Douglas Richards, two Indiana workers who are currently forced to accept union monopoly bargaining and pay union dues. Although Indiana’s Right to Work law prohibits new forced dues contracts, forced dues contracts that predate the legislation – such as the ones Brubaker and Richards are subject to – are still in place.
According to United Steel Workers (USW) union lawyers, who filed the legal challenge last summer, Indiana’s new Right to Work law runs afoul of a provision in the state’s constitution that forbids anyone from being forced to work without “just compensation.”
As Brubaker and Richards point out in their legal brief, union officials are never “forced” to provide services to nonunion employees. Union officials always retain the option to only negotiate on behalf of actual union members. Because union operatives are eager to exert control over all workers and then collect dues, they often demand the power to represent everyone in a given workplace, even if many employees have no interest in the union’s so-called “representation.”
“It’s unfortunate that Judge Paras declined to dismiss this desperate challenge to Indiana’s popular Right to Work law,” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Foundation attorneys will continue do everything possible to make workers heard in the run-up to a decision that could undo the state’s Right to Work protections and once again force Hoosier employees to pay union dues just to get or keep a job.”
Worker Forces Elevator Union Bosses to Settle Federal Charge and Drop Retaliatory $20,000 Fine
Worker Forces Elevator Union Bosses to Settle Federal Charge and Drop Retaliatory $20,000 Fine
Union officials demanded full-dues-payment and union membership in violation of Supreme Court precedents
Chicago, IL (October 24, 2012) – A former Barnard/Imperial Elevator employee has won a settlement from a local union after union officials demanded he pay about $20,000 for working at a non-union workplace.
With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Robert Fierke filed a federal charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Chicago after union officials levied approximately $20,000 of fines against him.
Fierke worked for Barnard/Imperial Elevator before the company went bankrupt. International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) Local 2 union bosses enjoyed monopoly bargaining privileges over the workplace. IUEC union officials never informed workers, including Fierke, of their right to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership as upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Foundation-won Communications Workers v. Beck case.
Worker Forces Elevator Union Bosses to Settle Federal Charge and Drop Retaliatory $20,000 Fine
Chicago, IL (October 24, 2012) – A former Barnard/Imperial Elevator employee has won a settlement from a local union after union officials demanded he pay about $20,000 for working at a non-union workplace.
With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Robert Fierke filed a federal charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Chicago after union officials levied approximately $20,000 of fines against him.
Fierke worked for Barnard/Imperial Elevator before the company went bankrupt. International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) Local 2 union bosses enjoyed monopoly bargaining privileges over the workplace. IUEC union officials never informed workers, including Fierke, of their right to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership as upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Foundation-won Communications Workers v. Beck case.
Instead, union officials demanded that Fierke join the union and pay full union dues as a condition of employment.
After Barnard went bankrupt, Fierke worked for a non-union employer for about a month. IUEC union officials demanded he pay the retaliatory fine even though he was never a voluntary member.
The settlement requires union officials to rescind the fine imposed on Fierke.
“Cynical elevator union bosses retaliated against a worker for exercising his rights to continue providing for himself and his family,” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Illinois desperately needs a Right to Work law making union membership and dues-payment completely voluntary to prevent this type of union boss abuse in the future.”
Twenty-three states have Right to Work protections for employees. Public polling shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans and union members support the Right to Work principle of voluntary unionism.
UPDATE: California union bosses meet resistance from nurses nationwide
Last week, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Workers West organizers in Orange County, California were booted out of a hospital for the second time this year.
SEIU officials have been trying to unionize workers at Chapman Medical Center through a backroom deal known as a "neutrality agreement" designed to grease the skids for workers to be forced into union ranks.
The agreement was anything but "neutral": Company officials granted union operatives access to company facilities to conduct a coercive "card check" organizing campaign in which union organizers pressure workers to fill out cards that count as votes for union control of the workplace. Meanwhile, Chapman waived the right to have a federally-supervised secret ballot election to determine whether employees really wish to be unionized.
SEIU organizers resorted to harassing late night phone calls, blocking workers’ driveways while they were heading to work, bribing workers with food to sign "cards" that would later count as "votes," and stalking workers. One time, workers even had to resort to calling the police to remove the unwanted SEIU militants from their workplace.
Even though Chapman workers won a settlement from the SEIU over the summer which forced the union to renounce the "recognition" it received from Chapman and forego the use of card check, union organizers managed to force a unionization election. The SEIU hierarchy lost again, 90 to 48.
Meanwhile, across the nation, the California-based National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) union hierarchy is on a crusade to unionize "every nurse in the nation." As a result, NNOC union bosses have entered into "neutrality agreements" with nationwide healthcare providers Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE: THC) and HCA Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HCA), among others.
Nurses from across the country, from Texas to Pennsylvania and Florida are speaking out against the forced unionization of their workplaces.
One major flashpoint in this nationwide battle over nurses’ workplaces recently occurred in multiple Tenet-own hospitals in El Paso, Texas. In just 10 days, three nurses from two El Paso hospitals filed federal charges against the NNOC union and Tenet for denying nurses who oppose unionization equal access to discuss the effects of unionization in their workplaces. The NLRB Regional Office in Phoenix has already found merit to some of the charges.
Moreover, in July, nurses in McAllen, Texas successfully voted the NNOC union hierarchy out of their HCA-owned hospital. And Tenet is facing federal charges in Boca Raton, Florida for enforcing a discriminatory neutrality agreement between its facility there and SEIU organizers.
In El Paso, the NLRB held a unionization election in Sierra Medical Center. And despite all the odds, a tenacious group of nurses managed to hold off the forced unionization of their workplace by 10 votes.
Despite union bosses’ crusade to unionize every nurse in the nation, nurses everywhere are fighting back against the forced unionization of their workplaces.
School Bus Drivers Slam the Brakes on Teamster Union Rights Violations
School Bus Drivers Slam the Brakes on Teamster Union Rights Violations
Union officials charge nonmember workers more than full dues to keep their jobs
Spring Grove, PA (October 25, 2012) – A local Teamster union is facing federal prosecution after violating the rights of two local school bus drivers.
The case stems from federal charges filed by two school bus drivers, LeeAnn Schorner and Brenda Wiseman, with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.
Schorner and Wiseman refrain from formal union membership in the Teamsters Local Union 776 and object to paying full union dues. Because Pennsylvania lacks a Right to Work law, workers can be compelled to pay union fees as a condition of employment.
