Flight Attendant’s Legal Victory Over Illegal Union-Instigated Firing Exposes Union Boss Targeting of Dissenting Employees
Trial documents show union activist advocating ‘targeted assassinations’ of union critics, Southwest senior management referring to nonmember as ‘cancer’
Dallas, TX (August 3, 2022) – During former Southwest Airlines flight attendant Charlene Carter’s recently-concluded federal trial over her illegal firing at the hands of Southwest and Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), disturbing details emerged about the union’s treatment of employees who object to the union’s agenda. The trial ended in a unanimous jury verdict in favor of Carter which awarded her more than $5 million in combined compensatory and punitive damages.
Carter’s Foundation staff attorneys filed a lawsuit for her in 2017 against the union and Southwest for illegally firing her for speaking out about her religious beliefs and against the union’s political activities. In January 2017, Carter learned that Audrey Stone, then union president, and other TWU Local 556 officials used union dues to attend the “Women’s March on Washington D.C.” That event was sponsored by political groups Carter opposed, including Planned Parenthood.
The illegal firing occurred after President Stone reported Carter to Southwest for sending Stone online messages challenging Stone’s leadership and the political agenda the union hierarchy was pursuing. Carter’s opposition to union political activities included the TWU officials’ advocacy against a National Right to Work law which, if passed, would have allowed Carter to completely cut off financial support to the union.
Emails Show Union Militants Ridiculed Employees Who Didn’t Want to Fund Union Politics, Pushed ‘Targeted Assassinations’ for Union Dissidents
At the trial Carter’s attorneys introduced emails obtained in discovery that showed TWU higher-ups’ contempt for workers opposed to the union’s control. A 2014 email communication to Southwest’s then-Senior Director in Inflight Services, Sonya Lacore, from TWU union activist Brian Talburt had the latter advocating for “targeted assassinations” of union dissidents via social media. Lacore referred to Talburt as her “frequent pen pal” during her deposition prior to trial.
In the same email, Talburt labeled Corliss King, who later became a Local 556 executive board member, as “incredibly dangerous” because “She will play VERY well to the heavy inner city, minority crowd.” Talburt suggested there would be an “opportunity” for an assassination of King given what he described as her “dreadful work history.”
Also in the email, a union nonmember and frequent critic, Mike Casper, was referred to as a “cancer” that must be “eradicated.” Talburt also appears to call union critics “sheeple” and “cancer,” and says dissent against the union is “a dangerous thing and must b [sic] eradicated when ever [sic] possible or it spreads… I highly encourage targeting people.”
Talburt later forwarded the email to TWU president Stone highlighting what he claimed was “off the record” promotion to Lacore of “targeted assassination” of union critics. President Stone would then later target Carter with the complaint to company management that led to Carter’s illegal termination by Southwest.
President Stone also testified at trial to reporting other union opponents to Southwest, including the leader of the recall effort whom Stone reported for criticizing her on social media for reporting Carter. Throughout 2017, Talburt repeatedly emailed Southwest management, asking that they discipline the recall leader and other union opponents for their protected activities.
Emails unearthed by Foundation attorneys and introduced at trial also showed the contempt that Southwest and TWU officials had for Carter specifically because she opposed union political activities. After Carter sent an email to TWU Local 556 Treasurer John Parrot demanding that the union stop deductions from her paycheck for the union’s Political Action Committee (PAC), Parrot forwarded Carter’s request to several union agents, saying “Ha! She has been supporting the thing she despises this entire time…”
One respondent to Parrot’s forward was Todd Gage, a TWU Local 556 Vice President, who wrote: “I wish I could give her a list of all the campaigns she has donated to in the last 17 years! Her head would explode.” Local 556 Second Vice President, Brett Nevarez, said “so typical bat****/dip**** cannot read her paycheck!”
Foundation Attorneys Will Continue to Defend Carter
Despite the unanimous jury verdict for Carter, Southwest and TWU union officials have announced that they will appeal. Foundation staff attorneys will continue to defend Carter.
“Ms. Carter demonstrated that, even in an overwhelmingly toxic environment, independent-minded workers can stand up, push back against union boss attacks on individual rights and free speech, and win,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “The evidence presented at Carter’s trial reveals an ingrained union culture of intimidation and prejudice against dissident workers. While we will keep fighting to defend Ms. Carter’s victory for her rights, flight attendants or other employees who have experienced similar hostility should not hesitate to contact the National Right to Work Foundation for help in defending their rights.”
“Federal law governing labor relations in the air and rail industries allows union officials to demand workers fund their activities as a condition of employment,” Mix added. “TWU union officials’ attacks on employees who disagree with the union’s agenda are the unsurprising result of a system in which workers do not have even the simple power to withhold dues when union officials violate their rights – an accountability mechanism Right to Work protects.”
St. James Mayo Clinic Nurses Overwhelmingly Vote to Remove AFSCME Union; Certified by Labor Board
Certification of result follows similar vote by hundreds of nurses at Mankato Mayo Clinic location to remove Minnesota Nurses Association union
St. James, MN (August 1, 2022) – Healthcare workers at the Mayo Clinic Health System in St. James, Minnesota have formally removed the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 65 from their hospital. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) made the 15-2 vote official after the 7-day deadline for union election objections passed without any objections filed.
The workers’ decertification petition was filed by registered nurse Heather Youngwirth with the NLRB Region 18 office in Minneapolis, MN with free legal representation from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys. The vote on whether to end AFSCME union officials’ monopoly bargaining powers at the Mayo Clinic was 15-2 in favor of decertification of AFSCME, with the Labor Board’s official tally happening last week.
Minnesota is not a Right to Work state, meaning workers can be forced to pay dues or fees to union officials as a condition of keeping their jobs. Because the workers’ decertification vote was successful, AFSCME union officials are stripped of their monopoly “representation” powers, including the ability to impose a forced dues requirement on the nurses in the bargaining unit.
National Right to Work Foundation legal aid has recently assisted workers in several decertification efforts in Minnesota. In addition to the St. James Mayo Clinic, hundreds of nurses at Mayo Clinic in Mankato, Minnesota recently voted to remove the Minnesota Nurses Association. Meanwhile, two groups of employees at four Cuyuna Regional Medical Center locations recently filed petitions seeking decertification votes seeking to remove SEIU union officials.
Because the NLRB has made the decertification process unnecessarily complicated, workers often need to turn to Foundation attorneys for free legal aid in navigating the process. The Foundation recently aided metalworkers at Minneapolis Washer and Stamping, who endured a year and a half of litigation, but have finally voted out Communications Workers of America (CWA) union officials.
“While these nurses have successfully removed a union they oppose, we should not lose sight that thousands of Minnesota workers are forced to pay union dues, not because they voluntarily choose to, but because they would be fired if they don’t pay up,” commented National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation President Mark Mix. “It is past time Minnesota joins all of its neighboring states and ensure Minnesota workers have Right to Work protections so all workers can decide for themselves whether to financially support union activities.”
Minneapolis Metalworkers Win After Year-And-a-Half-Long Effort to Vote Out Unpopular CWA Union Bosses
Union ousted in employee-requested election despite its efforts to manipulate allegations against employer to stop vote
Minneapolis, MN (July 29, 2022) – After a year-and-a-half-long legal battle, Minneapolis metalworker Roger Downing and his coworkers at Minneapolis Washer and Stamping have successfully voted unpopular Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA) Local 1140 union officials out of their facility. Downing received free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certified the election result in Downing’s workplace on July 20. Downing and his coworkers’ effort faced headwinds in 2021 after IUE-CWA union bosses filed election “blocking charges.” Those are often-unsubstantiated charges against employers that union officials frequently use to shut down employee-led efforts to vote unions out.
The NLRB adopted Foundation-backed reforms in 2020 that generally prevent such charges from stopping a decertification election. The reforms also provide that employees at least be allowed to cast ballots before allegations of misconduct surrounding the election are resolved.
Metalworkers Persist after IUE-CWA Union Boss Attempts to Stifle Vote
Downing first submitted a petition asking the NLRB to conduct a decertification vote in March 2021. IUE-CWA union lawyers quickly filed “blocking charges” alleging misdeeds by Minneapolis Washer and Stamping officials that were not even related to the employees’ desire for an election. NLRB Region 18 in Minneapolis, apparently ignoring the 2020 election rules curbing these oft-used union tactics, decided to block the election at the union officials’ behest.
Foundation attorneys representing Downing filed a Request for Review at the NLRB in Washington, DC, arguing that NLRB Region 18 had wrongfully disregarded the 2020 reforms to NLRB election rules. The Request for Review also pointed out that Region 18 blocked the election without holding an evidentiary hearing to determine whether there was any causal connection between IUE-CWA union officials’ claims and the employees’ desire to boot the union – a breach of NLRB precedent predating the 2020 rules.
Once union officials’ ability to block the election expired, Downing submitted a second decertification petition for his colleagues. The election result demonstrated that IUE-CWA union officials no longer have majority employee support, and consequently, that union officials can no longer impose their monopoly bargaining powers over the entire work unit. Downing and his fellow metalworkers are now free of the union.
Workers Across Minnesota Standing Up to Unwanted Unions
Downing and his coworkers’ successful ouster of the IUE-CWA union comes as other rank-and-file workers in the Gopher State are seeking Foundation aid in obtaining “decertification elections” to eliminate union representation that no longer serves their interests. Recently, hundreds of nurses at Mayo Clinic locations in Mankato and St. James voted by wide margins to eject Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) union officials and American Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union officials respectively.
Also, earlier this month, employees of Cuyuna Regional Medical Center facilities in the Brainerd Lakes region of Minnesota filed multiple petitions for elections to remove Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Minnesota from power.
Minnesota lacks Right to Work protections for its private sector employees. Thus, union officials can force even workers who reject formal union membership to pay some union dues or fees as a condition of staying employed. In contrast, all the states that border Minnesota and 23 others have Right to Work protections that ensure union membership and financial support are strictly voluntary.
“In Mr. Downing and his colleagues’ workplace we see yet another example of union officials unabashedly stifling the will of the workers they claim to ‘represent.’ Foundation attorneys were honored to aid Mr. Downing and his coworkers as they persisted for well over a year through litigation meant to stop them from kicking out an unpopular union,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix.
“Union association should never be forced, and Minnesota legislators should pass a Right to Work law to protect workers’ right to freely choose whether to join or fund a union,” Mix added.
Third King Soopers Employee Hits UFCW Union Officials with Federal Charge for Illegal Strike Fine
Following union boss-ordered January strike, nonmember workers now face thousands in ‘internal union fines’ in violation of longstanding federal law
Denver, CO (July 25, 2022) – Another King Soopers grocery worker has filed federal charges against the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 union in response to union officials illegally threatening to fine the worker, who chose to exercise her right to work during a strike. The case, filed with the National Labor Relations Board, is the third recently filed by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys for King Soopers employees challenging retaliatory fines by UFCW union officials.
Grocery worker Hope Schaefer has not been a union member for more than a decade, something union officials previously acknowledged in a 2011 letter. Despite this, UFCW union officials falsely accused her of working behind a picket line while still a union member during the union’s 10-day strike and threatened a fine of nearly $4,000.
UFCW officials demanded that workers strike against King Soopers grocery stores for more than a week in January 2022, impacting more than 8,000 employees. In response to the high profile strike, the Foundation issued a legal notice informing the affected workers of their rights that union officials often hide, including the right to continue to work to support their families. The notice warned workers that to protect themselves from being subjected to internal “union discipline” such as fines for defying union strike orders workers should first resign their formal union membership.
The Foundation legal notice also noted that during past UFCW-instigated strikes workers faced unlawful fines, which union officials claim can only be disputed at internal union kangaroo courts. However, with free legal aid from Foundation attorneys, many workers have successfully challenged such fines on the grounds that union bosses have no authority to levy such fines against workers who are not fully voluntary union members.
In June, Foundation staff attorneys filed NLRB charges against UFCW Local 7 after union officials similarly sought to illegally levy heavy fines against King Soopers grocery workers Nick Hall and Marcelo Ruybal despite not being voluntary union members. Reportedly UFCW union bosses have issued similar threats to numerous workers with fines of “$250 per day… as well as all monies earned … from King Soopers during [the] dates of these violations.”
“Workers should not have to choose between feeding their families and bending the knee to union bosses during UFCW-imposed strikes,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “But in what has become an unfortunately predictable pattern, rather than accept limits to their unique government-granted power, UFCW union bosses are once again violating federal law to punish independent-minded workers.”
“Other King Soopers workers facing similar fines should know they can reach out to Foundation staff attorneys for free legal assistance in challenging such excessive, retaliatory fines,” added Mix.
Maine Medical Center Nurses Secure Vote to Remove Unwanted Maine State Nurses Association Union Officials’ ‘Representation’
More than 500 workers petitioned for union “decertification election” seeking a vote as soon as allowed following imposition of unwanted union
Portland, ME (July 21, 2022) – Maine Medical Center nurses will soon vote in an election that could send Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA-NNU, an affiliate of National Nurses United) union officials packing from the hospital. This follows Nurse Davin Brooks’ submission of a petition containing signatures of more than 500 of his colleagues.
Brooks and his fellow nurses are receiving free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The petition comes as Foundation staff attorneys are increasingly assisting healthcare workers in obtaining votes to remove unwanted unions, including in Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Massachusetts.
The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal private-sector labor law, a duty which includes conducting votes to both certify and decertify unions. Foundation staff attorneys recommended reforms the NLRB adopted in 2020 that significantly eased processes by which workers can request a vote to remove an unwanted union. Those reforms included limiting union officials’ ability to manipulate often-unverified allegations of employer wrongdoing to stop an employee-requested union decertification vote.
Union Installed Through Dubious Mail-Ballot Process, Employees Soon Wanted Ouster
MSNA union officials were originally installed at Maine Medical Center in Portland in May 2021, after the NLRB conducted a mail-ballot union certification vote among the hospital employees. Mail-ballot NLRB elections, which before COVID were very rare and only held where in-person votes were not feasible, have lower turnout rates than standard in-person elections. Studies show mail-ballot elections benefit union organizers in part due to that lower turnout. Conducting such votes through the mail also has resulted in post office errors that disenfranchise workers, and ballot harvesting by union organizers that undermines the privacy of workers’ votes.
Since the union was installed last year, MSNA union officials and Maine Medical Center management have been unable to finalize a contract. Brooks filed the decertification petition signed by his coworkers in June, the soonest allowed by the NLRB’s “election bar” which prevents more than one such election within a year. The election is scheduled for August 17 and 18, and will be held in person at multiple Maine Medical Center locations.
“Maine Medical Center employees are more than reasonable in their desire to oust MSNA union officials, who came to power at the facility through a questionable mail-ballot vote and have failed to produce a contract in over a year,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “No healthcare worker should be subject to the monopoly control of a union that they don’t believe serves their interests. We are proud to aid Mr. Brooks and his coworkers in exercising their right to free themselves of union officials that clearly made promises to nurses on which the union could not actually deliver.”
Healthcare Workers at Multiple Cuyuna Regional Medical Center Locations File Petitions to Remove SEIU Union
Clerical and technical bargaining unit employees signed petitions seeking vote to end SEIU Healthcare Minnesota union’s monopoly ‘representation’
Minneapolis, MN (July 19, 2022) – Two groups of healthcare employees spread across four Cuyuna Regional Medical Center facilities in the Brainerd Lakes region of Minnesota have filed petitions seeking the removal of the Healthcare Minnesota affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) from their workplaces. The workers’ decertification petitions were filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
Laurie Murphy and Terri Larson filed the decertification petitions with the signatures of numerous coworkers who oppose the Healthcare Minnesota SEIU union at the four Cuyuna Regional Medical Center facilities located in Crosby, Breezy Point, Longville, and Baxter.
Murphy filed her decertification petition on behalf of technical employees, which includes employees in the laboratory, respiratory therapy, physical therapy and radiology departments, along with licensed practical nurses, engineers, certified occupational therapy assistants, pharmacy technicians, and accredited records technicians. Larson filed a petition on behalf of clerical employees working in the business office or medical records department.
Under federal law, when at least 30% of workers in a bargaining unit sign a petition seeking the removal of union officials’ monopoly bargaining powers, an NLRB-conducted secret ballot vote whether to remove the union is triggered. If a majority of workers casting valid ballots do not vote for the union, the union is stripped of its government-granted monopoly “representation” powers. Those powers let union officials impose contracts on all workers in the workplace, even workers who are not union members and oppose the union.
Minnesota is not a Right to Work state, meaning all workers in a unionized workplace can legally be required to pay dues or fees to a union as a condition of getting or keeping their jobs. If the bargaining unit workers vote to decertify, SEIU union officials will be stripped of their monopoly “representation” powers used to impose forced union dues or fees.
Foundation-advocated reforms to decertification elections that the NLRB adopted in 2020 have curtailed union officials’ abuse of so-called “blocking charges” to delay or block workers from exercising their right to decertify a union by asserting unproven allegations against their employer, often completely unrelated to workers’ desire to free themselves of the union. However, the Biden-appointed NLRB majority recently announced it will start rulemaking to overturn those reforms and make it easier for union officials to block decertification votes no matter how many rank-and-file workers want a vote.
“SEIU union officials claim to ‘represent’ these healthcare workers, but if they really believe they have the support of the rank-and-file, they won’t resort to blocking charges or other legal trickery to attempt to stall or block these decertification votes from promptly going forward,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Of course ultimately cases like these show why Minnesota workers need the protection of a Right to Work law to make all union financial support strictly voluntary. That way each individual worker could decide for themselves whether union bosses deserve part of their hard-earned paycheck.”
Flight Attendant Triumphs Over TWU Union and Southwest in Suit About Illegal Firing; Jury Awards $5.1 Million in Damages
TWU union and Southwest retaliated against employee for speaking out against political stances and activities of union leadership that violated her religious beliefs
Dallas, TX (July 14, 2022) – Southwest Airlines flight attendant Charlene Carter has just prevailed in her federal lawsuit in which she charged the Transportation Workers Union of America (TWU) Local 556 union and Southwest for illegally firing her for her religious opposition to abortion. She received free legal representation from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.
Today a federal district court jury returned a verdict that found in Carter’s favor in all counts of the lawsuit. The jury awarded Carter $5.1 million in combined compensatory and punitive damages against TWU and Southwest for their respective role in her unlawful termination.
Following the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas’ announcement of a verdict in the case, National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix issued the following statement about Carter’s victory:
“This long overdue verdict vindicates Ms. Carter’s fundamental right to dissent from the causes and ideas that TWU union officials – who claim to ‘represent’ Southwest flight attendants – support while forcing workers to bankroll their activities. No American worker should have to fear termination, intimidation, or any other reprisal merely for speaking out against having their own money spent, purportedly in their name, to promote an agenda they find abhorrent.
“Even with this basic right under the Railway Labor Act successfully defended, however, TWU union officials still enjoy the enormous government-granted privilege of being able to force airline workers to financially subsidize their activities as a condition of employment. While we’re proud to stand with Ms. Carter and are pleased by the verdict, there ultimately should be no place in American labor law for compelling workers to fund a private organization that violates their core beliefs.”
Flight Attendant Called Out Union Officials for Their Political Activities
As a Southwest employee, Carter joined TWU Local 556 in September 1996. A pro-life Christian, she resigned her membership in September 2013 after learning that her union dues were being used to promote causes that violate her conscience, such as abortion.
Carter resigned from union membership but was still forced to pay fees to TWU Local 556 as a condition of her employment. State Right to Work laws do not protect her from forced union fees because airline and railway employees are covered by the federal Railway Labor Act (RLA). The RLA allows union officials to have a worker fired for refusing to pay union dues or fees. But it does protect the rights of employees to remain nonmembers of the union, to criticize the union and its leadership, and advocate for changing the union’s current leadership.
In January 2017, Carter learned that Audrey Stone, the union president, and other TWU Local 556 officials used union dues to attend the “Women’s March on Washington D.C.,” which was sponsored by political groups she opposed, including Planned Parenthood.
Carter, a vocal critic of Stone and the union, took to social media to challenge Stone’s leadership and to express support for a recall effort that would remove Stone from power. Carter also sent Stone a message affirming her commitment to both the recall effort and a National Right to Work law after the union had sent an email to employees telling them to oppose Right to Work.
After sending Stone that email, Southwest managers notified Carter that they needed to have a mandatory meeting as soon as possible about “Facebook posts they had seen.” During this meeting, Southwest presented Carter screenshots of her pro-life posts and messages and questioned why she made them.
Carter explained her religious beliefs and opposition to the union’s political activities. Carter said that, by participating in the Women’s March, President Stone and TWU Local 556 members purported to represent all Southwest flight attendants. Southwest authorities told Carter that President Stone claimed to be harassed by Carter’s messages. A week after this meeting, Southwest fired Carter.
Religious Discrimination Suit Already Weathered Early Attack from Southwest and Union
In 2017, Carter filed her federal lawsuit with help from Foundation staff attorneys to challenge the firing as an abuse of her rights, alleging she lost her job because of her religious beliefs, standing up to TWU Local 556 officials, and criticizing the union’s political activities and how it spent employees’ dues and fees.
Before the District Court’s decision, a federal judge blocked attempts to shut down the case early by Southwest and TWU. Both defendants filed motions for summary judgment, with Southwest claiming that Carter lacked a “private right of action” to enforce her rights under the Railway Labor Act (RLA) and that her case concerned only a “minor” dispute over interpretation of the union contract that is outside the jurisdiction of the District Court. District Court Judge Brantley Starr rejected all those motions, ruling that “genuine disputes of material fact” precluded summary judgment and that a jury should decide those disputes.
IAM Union Quickly Folds in Boeing Technician’s Lawsuit over Unlawful Dues Deductions, Union Must Return Dues
Union bosses used other union locals’ financial data to ‘calculate’ higher forced dues amount than longstanding law allows
Seattle, WA (July 14, 2022) – A technician at Boeing’s Auburn, WA, facility has won a settlement requiring International Association of Machinists (IAM) union officials to return dues money seized from his wages in violation of his rights under Supreme Court precedent. He received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
In May, Boeing technician Don Zueger filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington against the IAM union, maintaining the union breached his rights guaranteed by the Foundation-won 1988 CWA v. Beck U.S. Supreme Court decision. In Beck, the Court ruled that union officials cannot lawfully demand full union dues from objecting private sector workers who abstain from formal union membership.
Under Beck, union officials can only charge union nonmembers “fees” which exclude expenses for things like union political activities. Washington State’s lack of Right to Work protections for its private sector workers means that union officials can compel workers to pay certain fees as a condition of keeping their jobs.
In contrast, in the 27 states that have Right to Work laws on the books, union membership and all union financial support are strictly voluntary. This eliminates the opportunity for union officials to “cook the books” when determining the amount that nonmembers can be required to pay under threat of termination.
IAM Dues Scheme Used Audits from Other Union Locals to Impose Illegal Dues Rate on Worker
According to Zueger’s lawsuit, in February he resigned his union membership and asked IAM union officials to decrease his dues payments as the Supreme Court’s Beck precedent requires.
IAM officials responded by claiming that, under the union’s nationwide policy, nonmember forced fee amounts come from averages of selected audits that in each case include nine other local and district IAM affiliates. This means that IAM officials did not calculate Zueger’s compulsory union fee rate using the actual percentages determined in the audits of the local and district IAM affiliates that Zueger must subsidize as a condition of employment.
Unsurprisingly, this policy resulted in Zueger’s forced dues amount being higher than it would have been had union officials followed Beck and only used the audits for the district and local affiliates Zueger is forced to fund.
Zueger’s lawsuit sought to force IAM union bosses to return all money taken in violation of Beck and to properly reduce his future union payments in accordance with Beck.
Settlement Requires IAM Union to Return Illegally Seized Dues
Rather than attempt to defend their scheme which increased Zueger’s forced fee amount, IAM union chiefs quickly backed down and settled the case. IAM union officials have now, as the settlement mandates, returned to Zueger the difference between the required forced fees amount and the illegal amount the union imposed on him.
Going forward, the settlement forbids IAM union officials from demanding from Zueger any money in excess of the actual reduced Beck portion. The settlement vindicates Zueger’s Beck rights, though these are limited compared to the full protections of a Right to Work law.
“Mr. Zueger’s quick victory in this case likely indicates IAM union bosses had no confidence that their ‘averaging’ dues scheme would survive any serious judicial inspection,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “It’s shameful that union officials continue to search for ways to violate the decades-old Beck Supreme Court precedent and overcharge workers who clearly want nothing to do with the union and its agenda – a big concern as union politicking heats up in advance of midterm elections.”
“This scheme to artificially manipulate forced fees calculations is part of the IAM’s nationwide policy, so almost certainly other workers in Seattle and across the country are also being subjected to the same illegal calculations,” added Mix. “The Foundation has helped workers exercise and defend their Beck rights for years, and workers should reach out to us for free legal aid if they encounter illegal dues demands.”
Workers can request free legal aid from the Foundation by calling 800-336-3600 or through the Foundation’s website at https://www.nrtw.org/free-legal-aid/.
Louisville DSI Tunneling Employees Vote Out Unpopular Teamsters Union
Teamsters officials unsuccessfully challenged ballots of majority of workers
Louisville, KY (July 5, 2022) – After a months-long effort, Paul Garvin and his coworkers at DSI Tunneling in Louisville have successfully exercised their right to vote unpopular Teamsters union officials out of their workplace. Garvin, who led the effort and submitted the petition for a vote to decertify the Teamsters, received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 9 in Cincinnati certified the election result on June 28. The NLRB is the agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law, a duty which includes administering votes to certify or decertify unions.
Garvin and his colleagues’ effort faced headwinds from Teamsters union officials, who challenged the ballots of several new DSI employees. The NLRB rejected the union’s contentions against the ballots in their entirety, and ordered the ballot count which was conducted on June 8 and included ballots from the entire work unit under the Teamsters union’s control.
NLRB Rejects Union Attempt to Disenfranchise Over Half of Unit
Garvin first submitted a petition for a vote on whether to remove the union on October 15, 2021, signed by the requisite number of his colleagues to trigger such an election. While the NLRB administered a mail-ballot election about a month later, union officials challenged more than half the ballots cast on the grounds that a group of new DSI employees are somehow “agents of the employer” and that they are temporary employees technically excluded from the unit.
NLRB regional officials in Cincinnati shot down Teamsters’ bosses arguments, stating that “There is no evidence that the employees had actual or apparent authority to act as agents of the Employer,” and that DSI management had provided “sufficient evidence that there was a mutual understanding of the employees that they hold permanent positions with the Employer.”
Regional NLRB officials then counted the ballots cast in the election, which revealed that 60% of the unit had voted to remove Teamsters officials from monopoly bargaining power at their facility.
NLRB in Washington Seeks to Hinder Workers Who Want to Oust Unwanted Unions
Garvin and his coworkers’ successful ouster of unwanted Teamsters officials comes as the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, DC, has announced that it will initiate rulemaking to overturn 2020 Foundation-backed reforms that strengthened the ability of rank-and-file workers to obtain elections to remove unwanted union representation. The reforms generally prevent often-unverified union boss allegations against employers from stopping workers from voting in union decertification elections.
“We are pleased that Mr. Garvin and his coworkers were finally able to oust unpopular Teamsters officials, and we were proud to support them in their endeavor,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Teamsters officials tried to use ultimately-rejected allegations to invalidate the voices of more than half of the DSI employees they claim to ‘represent,’ demonstrating that workers need more, not less, protection for their right to vote in secret on whether union officials should stay in power at their workplaces.”
