All but one worker sign petition seeking vote to remove union officials 

BLOOMINGTON, IN (February 16, 2022) – Mechanics and customer service employees at Penske Truck Leasing in Bloomington, Indiana have filed a petition seeking the removal of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union No. 135 from their workplace. The workers’ decertification petition was filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 25 office in Indianapolis, Indiana with free legal representation from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.

Penske Truck Leasing employee Steven Stuttle filed the decertification petition for his coworkers who want to oust the unpopular union. Thirty percent of workers’ signatures are needed to trigger a NLRB-conducted secret ballot vote to remove the union. This request was signed by all but one of the workers in the bargaining unit.

Indiana is a Right to Work state, meaning workers cannot legally be required to join or pay money to a union as a condition of keeping their jobs. However, federal law permits workers to be forced under one-size-fits-all union monopoly “representation,” even nonmembers opposed to the union. If the workers’ decertification effort is successful, Teamsters union officials will be stripped of their monopoly “representation” powers.

National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys have recently assisted workers in numerous successful decertification efforts across the nation, including for workers in Oklahoma, Illinois, and Delaware. Foundation-backed reforms to the rules for 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. Such charges are often based on unproven allegations made against an employer, completely unrelated to workers’ desire to free themselves of the union.

“If Teamsters union officials don’t take a hint and leave, the NLRB must promptly schedule a vote and allow Penske Truck Leasing employees to exercise their right to remove unwanted union officials,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “These workers are sending an overwhelming message that the Teamsters bosses are not Penske material.”

SEIU officials spin phony narrative about Village of Carpentersville officials to get state labor board to block employee election to remove union

Chicago, IL (February 11, 2022) – Village of Carpentersville firefighter Nick Salzmann is appealing an order by the executive director of the Illinois Labor Relations Board (ILRB) that blocks his and his coworkers’ right to remove unwanted union officials from their workplace. Salzmann, who filed a petition signed by his coworkers asking the ILRB to administer a vote among his colleagues whether to boot out Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 bosses, is receiving free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys.

The ILRB is the Illinois state agency responsible for adjudicating workplace disputes among union officials, Illinois government agencies, and Illinois public employees. SEIU union officials filed so-called “blocking charges” in an attempt to stop the employee-requested vote, arguing that various allegations they are making against Carpentersville government officials should block Salzmann and his colleagues’ effort to oust the union.

While the ILRB executive director delayed the election at the union bosses’ behest, Salzmann’s appeal exposes numerous errors with the basis for that decision and uncovers an ongoing campaign by union officials to stop the decertification attempt.

Salzmann’s appeal brief reveals that, even though SEIU union lawyers convinced the ILRB that Carpentersville officials were not following proper bargaining procedures, in reality “the Union walked from the bargaining table twice.” Furthermore, the brief maintains that “the union walked away from the bargaining table twice when the Employer could not guarantee that the decertification process would not proceed,” a sign that SEIU bosses wanted Carpentersville officials to assist the union in quashing the employee-led decertification effort. According to the brief, approximately 80% of the firefighters favor decertifying the union.

The brief also states that “the Union amended the charges, changing from an ‘impacts and effect’ charge to a ‘failure to bargain’ charge,” a strong suggestion that union lawyers can’t demonstrate any connection between Salzmann and his coworkers’ desire to eliminate the union and anything Carpentersville officials did.

Finally, Salzmann’s brief contends that the SEIU bosses’ actions disturbed the “laboratory conditions” that should be present for any decertification election. It states that the “Union’s efforts to compel [the firefighters] to abandon their claim, including telling them they had proceeded improperly in their effort,” along with the union bosses’ willful departures from the bargaining table “caused the factual scenario” that led to the union’s charge.

“Despite the clearly misguided ILRB Executive Director’s order blocking the election, evidence is rapidly emerging about the tall tale SEIU bosses spun to avoid facing a vote of the rank-and-file workers they claim to ‘represent,’” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “That union officials created the very circumstances that they are decrying in their so-called ‘blocking charges’ against Carpentersville officials is ridiculous. But the real injustice is that the ILRB is allowing union officials to abuse the process to stifle the will of the overwhelming majority of these firefighters, who support decertifying the union.”

Elsewhere in Illinois, Foundation staff attorneys are aiding Galesburg paramedics and EMTs in their effort to decertify an unwanted Teamsters union in their workplace. If successful, the effort would be the latest of several efficacious Foundation-backed employee removals of Teamsters officials in the past year.

Federal law gives rank-and-file workers the right to vote to free themselves from unwanted union “representation”

WHITE PLAINS, NY (February 10, 2022) – Healthcare workers at the White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York have filed a petition seeking the removal of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1199 union from their workplace. The workers’ decertification petition was filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 2 office in New York, NY with free legal representation from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.

White Plains Hospital Certified Surgical Technologist Yanilda Robinson filed the decertification petition for her coworkers who want to oust the unpopular union. The request seeking to end SEIU union officials’ monopoly bargaining powers at White Plains Hospital was signed by enough workers in the bargaining unit to trigger a NLRB-conducted secret ballot vote to remove the union.

New York is not a Right to Work state, meaning workers can legally be required to join or pay dues/ fees to a union as a condition of keeping their jobs. If the workers’ vote is successful, SEIU union officials will be stripped of their monopoly “representation” powers.

National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys have recently assisted workers in numerous successful decertification efforts across the nation, including for workers in Kansas, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Delaware. Reforms to the rules for 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. Such charges are often based on unproven allegations made against an employer, often completely unrelated to workers’ desire to free themselves of the union.

“These healthcare workers have bravely worked over the past two years under exceptionally challenging circumstances. We should honor that devotion by respecting their right to remove an unwanted union from their workplace,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “We hope the NLRB will promptly schedule a vote and not allow SEIU officials to engage in legal trickery to delay the decertification election these hospital workers have requested.”

SEIU officials attempted to overturn the result of an August 2021 decertification election at Research Medical Center

Kansas City, MO (February 9, 2022) – Hospital workers at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, are now free from control by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Kelly Pirman, an imaging technologist at the hospital, petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a union decertification election.

In a news release following the vote Pirman said: “The SEIU has not represented us fairly, nor provided us the value they claim.” Many of Pirman’s coworkers agreed that they no longer wanted SEIU officials’ so-called representation, and Pirman collected enough of their signatures to trigger an NLRB-supervised decertification election. In June 2021, the NLRB announced that the hospital workers voted 203-171 in favor of removing the union.

Despite losing the election, SEIU officials didn’t give up their monopoly bargaining privileges over the hospital staff. Instead, they filed objections to the result with the NLRB. Though the objections concerned only the hospital’s conduct, SEIU lawyers argued the workers’ choice to remove the union should be overturned.

National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys submitted a position paper for Pirman, contending the union officials’ objections were not sufficient reason to overturn the election. NLRB Region 13 Director Andrea Wilkes agreed, and on February 8^th, 2022, overruled all of the union’s objections. Wilkes certified the decertification election’s results, freeing Pirman and her coworkers at Research Medical Center from SEIU control.

“Although we are pleased that the Regional Director rejected SEIU bosses’ cynical attempt to maintain power over Research Medical Center workers, it shouldn’t take months of legal proceedings to stop union bosses from overturning the results of the vote the union lost,” said National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation President Mark Mix. “Unfortunately, because Missouri workers lack the protection of a Right to Work law, union officials are incentivized to fight to keep unwilling workers under their thumbs, knowing that as long as they remain in power they can force every worker to pay up or be fired.”

“No worker should be forced under a union monopoly they oppose. Missouri can begin to address that injustice by at least protecting workers against being forced to subsidize unwanted representation by passing a Right to Work law to make union financial support strictly voluntary,” added Mix.

Robert Basil Buick GMC also hit with charge for carrying out illegal union threat by firing worker just days later

Buffalo, NY (February 7, 2022) – Remmington Duk, who recently worked as a mechanic at the Robert Basil Buick GMC dealership in Orchard Park, has filed federal charges against the International Association of Mechanics (IAM) Lodge 447 union and the dealership. Duk’s charges say that IAM agents illegally threatened to have him fired in October 2021 because he exercised his right not to be a union member, and that Robert Basil officials followed through on this threat at IAM officials’ behest and terminated Duk less than a week later. Duk is receiving free legal representation from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

Duk’s charges were submitted on January 31 to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law and adjudicating disputes among employers, unions, and individual employees. The charges state that on October 7, 2021 an IAM official demanded Duk sign paperwork authorizing union membership and dues deductions from his paycheck, threatening that Duk would be fired if he declined. Duk did not sign, and Robert Basil Buick GMC terminated him on October 12, 2021.

The charges contend that both practices are unlawful under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which safeguards private sector employees’ right to abstain from any or all union activities. However, because New York lacks Right to Work protections for its private sector employees, even if private sector employees such as Duk abstain from union membership they can still be forced to pay union dues or fees as a condition of keeping their jobs. In the 27 states with Right to Work protections, union membership and dues payments are strictly voluntary.

Under the Foundation-won 1988 CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision, private sector employees who refuse union membership in non-Right to Work states can never be forced to subsidize the political activities of a union they don’t support. In nearby Rochester, Foundation staff attorneys just won a settlement for a General Motors worker who charged United Auto Workers (UAW) union officials with illegally seizing dues for politics from his wages even after repeated demands that they respect his Beck rights. UAW officials have now been forced to refund all monies they took from him in violation of Beck.

“Union bosses threatening people’s jobs and livelihoods is no way to gain the support of the workers they claim to ‘represent,’” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “IAM union bosses’ willingness to violate longstanding law shows why all workers need the protection of a Right to Work law. In addition to formal union membership, financial support for a union should also be voluntary and the choice of each individual worker.”

“As AFL-CIO founder Samuel Gompers declared in one of his final speeches, voluntarism, not force, should be the bedrock for building union support,” Mix added.

Hundreds of nurses reportedly receive letters from union claiming clearly illegal requests for dues payments were “oversight”

Worcester, MA (February 4, 2022) – After a National Right to Work Foundation-assisted nurse at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester filed federal charges against the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) union for demanding illegal retroactive dues, union officials scrambled to send letters to hundreds of St. Vincent Hospital nurses confessing “error.” The MNA thus effectively admitted to being caught red-handed demanding dues payments for periods when the nurses owed no compulsory dues, claiming that the “billing/renewal notices were recently mailed in error.”

The news comes just ahead of an employee-requested election on whether MNA union officials should stay in power at the facility. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is sending ballots via mail to St. Vincent Hospital nurses today, and expects to count the ballots on February 28. St. Vincent nurse Richard Avola submitted a petition to the NLRB in January demonstrating that hundreds of his coworkers requested such a vote to oust the MNA. The petition follows the conclusion of a 300+ day MNA-ordered strike that divided the hospital and the community and sparked multiple reports of bullying and harassment of nurses by union agents.

Regina Renaud, the St. Vincent nurse who charged the MNA with making illegal dues demands, reported in January that she had received a bill from union officials demanding that she pay dues retroactive to November 1, 2021. That includes a period during the strike when no compulsory dues contract was in effect. Her charge noted that “as a matter of law [she] and other similarly situated employees owed no dues or fees to the MNA,” because there was a strike and contract hiatus. Renaud is not a member of the MNA.

Despite MNA bosses telling media outlets that Renaud’s unfair labor practice charge has “no validity,” hundreds of St. Vincent Hospital nurses are now reporting getting letters from MNA officials rescinding all demands for dues payments for the strike period. MNA’s letters are dated January 12, one day after Renaud filed her charge with the NLRB. The MNA’s “error” letters note that while the union is scurrying to “clean up” its billing records, nurses may receive additional unlawful demands for dues payments because those bills “may slip past our filters and be mailed.”

“MNA union bosses were caught red-handed making illegal demands for retroactive dues. While they told media outlets the unfair labor practice charges were meritless, their own actions show a desperate attempt to cover up their violation of nurses’ rights under federal labor law,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Given MNA union officials’ demonstrated willingness to play fast and loose with the legal rights of those they claim to ‘represent,’ St. Vincent nurses should stay vigilant about further union misrepresentations and excessive dues demands, especially as they now consider whether to remove the union from their workplace.”

“As St. Vincent nurses make their voices heard in the decertification election, they should know they can contact the Foundation for free legal aid if union agents attempt to silence or overbill nurses opposed to unionization, or interfere with their right to vote,” Mix added.

Decertification election will allow rank-and-file workers to vote to free themselves from unwanted union “representation”

Frankfort, IN (February 3, 2022) – Healthcare workers at the Wesley Manor BHI retirement community in Frankfort, Indiana have filed a petition seeking the removal of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 962 union from their workplace. The workers’ decertification petition was filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 25 office in Indianapolis, IN with free legal representation from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.

The petition was filed by Robin Davis, an employee of Wesley Manor BHI. The request seeking to end AFSCME union officials’ monopoly bargaining powers at BHI was signed by about 50% of the workers in the bargaining unit, well over the legally required 30% needed to trigger an NLRB-conducted secret ballot vote to remove the union.

Indiana is a Right to Work state, meaning workers cannot legally be required to join or pay dues or fees to a union as a condition of keeping their jobs. However, even in Right to Work states, union officials who have obtained monopoly bargaining control in a workplace are granted the power impose one-size-fits-all union contracts on all workers, including those who opt out of union membership and would prefer to negotiate their own terms of employment.

The decertification petition was filed in advance of the expiration of the current union contract on April 30, 2022. If the workers’ vote is successful, AFSCME union officials will be stripped of their monopoly “representation” powers and will not be able to impose another union monopoly contract on the workers.

National Right to Work Foundation legal aid has recently assisted workers in numerous successful decertification efforts across the nation, including for workers in Kansas, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Delaware. Foundation-advocated reforms to decertification elections that were adopted by the NLRB 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 on the basis of unproven allegations made against an employer, often completely unrelated to workers’ desire to free themselves of the union.

“Under federal law workers are entitled to an up or down vote whether to remove a union they oppose from their workplace, but unfortunately, either due to union legal trickery or convoluted NLRB policies exercising that right often requires legal assistance,” National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation President Mark Mix said. “The good news for workers is they can turn to the Foundation for free legal aid to help secure their right to free themselves from unwanted so-called ‘union representation.’”

Effort follows several employee removals of Teamsters officials at other workplaces across country

Galesburg, IL (February 1, 2022) – With free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys, Zachary Pedigo and his fellow paramedics and EMTs at Galesburg Hospitals Ambulance Service are seeking to exercise their right to vote unwanted Teamsters Local 627 bosses out of power at their workplace. Pedigo submitted a petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) requesting a “decertification vote.”

The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law and adjudicating disputes between employers, unions, and individual employees. If successful, Pedigo and his coworkers’ effort would be the latest in a string of Foundation-assisted employee elections removing Teamsters officials from power. In just the past year, Rush University maintenance workers in Chicago, Frito-Lay salesmen in Del Rio, TX, Allied Central Coast truckers in Santa Maria, CA, XPO Logistics workers in Cinnaminson, NJ, and Blish-Mize hardware distribution employees in Atchison, KS, all voted to decertify unpopular Teamsters local unions.

Additionally, Airgas employees in Ventura, CA, and XPO Logistics workers in Los Angeles, CA, were freed from Teamsters power last year after union officials departed both workplaces to preempt likely election losses.

For more than a year workers have been enjoying an easier pathway to exercising their right to remove unwanted union officials. The NLRB in Washington, DC, in July 2020 enacted new rules governing decertification elections which, drawing from comments Foundation attorneys submitted to the agency earlier that year, now forbid union bosses from indefinitely stalling worker-requested votes based on so-called “blocking charges.” Such charges are union allegations against an employer that are often unproven and unrelated to workers’ desire to oust union officials.

Because Illinois lacks Right to Work protections for its private sector employees, such as Pedigo and his fellow paramedics and EMTs, they can be forced to pay part of full union dues as a condition of keeping their jobs even if they are not union members and oppose the union’s presence. However, because the most recent contract between Teamsters officials and Galesburg Hospitals Ambulance Service expired around a month ago, this obligation does not currently exist for Pedigo and his coworkers. They can only be legally compelled to pay dues or fees again once a new contract is in place.

Under the protection of Right to Work laws, which are on the books in 27 states, individual employees have the freedom to choose to voluntarily become union members and to financially support a union, or to abstain from both.

“Mr. Pedigo and his coworkers, who provide lifesaving first aid to the citizens of Galesburg, should not have to be subjects of Teamsters union bosses whose so-called ‘representation’ they oppose,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Thanks to Foundation-advocated reforms adopted by the NLRB in 2020, Mr. Pedigo and his fellow paramedics and EMTs should have an easier path to voting out the union. However, Foundation attorneys will ensure that their voices are heard and will battle any attempts to stifle their rights by Teamsters officials.”

Elsewhere in Illinois, Foundation staff attorneys are aiding Nick Salzmann and his fellow Village of Carpentersville part-time firefighters in attempting to decertify an unpopular Service Employees International Union (SEIU) affiliate in their workplace. Salzmann and his coworkers are battling “blocking charges” filed by SEIU bosses against Village officials to delay the firefighters’ requested decertification election. Salzmann and his coworkers are public employees and thus under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Labor Relations Board (ILRB), not the NLRB. The ILRB, which lacks protections against “blocking charges,” is giving SEIU bosses a chance to stymie Salzmann and his coworkers’ attempt to free themselves from unwanted union control.

National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation President issues statement in recognition of National School Choice Week

Washington, DC (January 27, 2022) – Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, issued the following statement in recognition of National School Choice Week 2022:

On School Choice Week 2022, the importance of protecting the right of parents to select their own children’s education is more important than ever. Over the past year, radical teacher union officials continued to wield their government-granted monopoly bargaining powers to impose controversial, top-down policies that harmed parents, kids, and independent-minded teachers.

Government school lockdowns pushed by politics-obsessed union chiefs like the American Federation of Teachers’ Randi Weingarten devastated American kids. Teacher union bosses’ coercive government-granted privileges allow union chiefs to hold the education of kids hostage to union political demands. Monopoly bargaining lets union officials push aside the interests of parents and children, but it also forces independent-minded teachers under union control they oppose.

Teachers from elementary schools all the way up through public colleges oppose union officials’ monopoly powers too, taking issue with the workplace policies or political views of the union hierarchy. In fact, a group of Jewish City University of New York professors just filed a federal lawsuit challenging New York State’s law allowing the Professional Staff Congress union to impose its so-called ‘representation’ on them – ‘representation’ they find to be very anti-Semitic.

No less an advocate of unions than Franklin Delano Roosevelt once cautioned that “All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.” Roosevelt was right, and since COVID-19’s arrival there’s been more than enough evidence of the havoc teacher union boss control has wrought on kids, parents, teachers, and the public at large.

Without school choice, parents and kids would have no option but to bear this top-down control, so it makes sense that citizens are leaving union-dominated government schools in record numbers. For much the same reason, teacher union bosses oppose giving parents choices like charter schools, because those options threaten union boss monopoly control over education.

School choice, while a basic right that all parents should enjoy, shouldn’t be a last resort parents employ simply to get their kids out of unstable union-dominated schools. Teachers, as well, shouldn’t have to flee traditional public schools just so they can escape being forced to associate with a private organization espousing views or policies that they abhor.