New York Verizon Workers Win Settlement Against Union Officials For Illegal Retaliation
CWA Union officials illegally attempted to levy five figure fines against Verizon employees who exercised rights to work despite union boss-initiated work stoppage
New York, NY (January 17, 2017) – In mid-October, 2016, seven Verizon employees filed federal unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union for violating federal labor law. The violations came after the employees exercised their right to resign their union memberships during a high profile union boss-ordered strike last year.
After CWA union officials ordered the strike, the workers chose to resign from the union and return to work. Later they were notified by CWA officials that they were being tried on internal “union discipline” charges, despite the fact that these workers were not union members when they returned to work and thus are protected by federal law.
On September 15th, the union held an internal union trial and fined the workers for going to work. Soon after, the workers were informed by letter that they had been fined sums of between nine and thirteen thousand dollars each.
Now, CWA Local 1107 union officials were required to settle the NLRB charges filed against them. The settlement requires that a notice describing the workers’ rights, and stating that the illegal fines imposed by the union bosses have been rescinded, be posted in the facility where the workers are employed.
“Union officials were caught red-handed violating the rights of workers with illegal five-figure fines just because the employees exercised their right to return to work in order to support their families,” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Although these employees have won their legal battle, it is outrageous that these types of illegal retaliatory fines remain common when workers choose to exercise their right to remain on the job and defy union-ordered strike demands.”
Worker Advocate Files Amicus Brief in Support of Personal Care Providers Seeking Refund of Illegally Seized Union Dues
National Right to Work Foundation brief filed with 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says union bosses should not keep dues seized in scheme ruled unconstitutional by U.S. Supreme Court in Foundation-won Harris case
San Francisco CA (January 11, 2017) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has filed an amicus curiae brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Hoffman, Routh, Eby, Olson v. Inslee in support of homecare workers in the state of Washington seeking a return of illegally seized union fees. The providers bringing the case are among the thousands of personal care provers in Washington State who had union dues illegally confiscated from them in a mandatory union dues scheme later ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court.
The United States Supreme Court outlined these rights in Harris v. Quinn, argued and won by Foundation staff attorneys in 2014. Harris held that the collection of forced union dues from home-based caregivers violated their First Amendment rights. The ruling struck down the scheme in Illinois, but the precedent established rendered similar schemes in other states, including Washington, unconstitutional.
In the amicus brief, Foundation attorneys argue that under Harris v. Quinn the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has no lawful authority to take the provider’s money and that now SEIU officials have no more right to keep the money than any individual or business that illegally confiscates money from a victim against their will.
“It is outrageous that forced dues seized under a scheme struck down by the Supreme Court in Harris v. Quinn have not yet been returned to the victims of the SEIU’s unconstitutional forced dues scheme,” said National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “SEIU bosses have no more right to these providers’ money than a thief has to keep the money stolen during an armed robbery.”
National Right to Work Foundation Launches Kentucky Task Force to Defend and Enforce New Right to Work Law
Foundation staff attorneys will provide free legal aid to Bluegrass State workers seeking to exercise new Right to Work protections
Springfield, VA (January 10, 2017) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation announced today the creation of a special task force to defend and enforce Kentucky’s newly-passed Right to Work law. Foundation staff attorneys will offer free legal advice and aid to Bluegrass State workers seeking to exercise their rights to refrain from union membership and union dues payment, guaranteed by the Right to Work law.
On Saturday January 7, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin signed into law Right to Work legislation, thereby making Kentucky the nation’s newest and 27th Right to Work state.
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has a long history of assisting employees seeking to exercise their Right to Work rights, most recently under Right to Work provisions enacted in West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
Foundation staff attorneys are prepared to defend the Kentucky Right to Work law from any spurious legal challenges brought by union officials. Big Labor, unwilling to give up their forced-dues powers, routinely challenges Right to Work laws in courts despite the fact that Right to Work laws have repeatedly been upheld.
Unfortunately, union officials also often try to stymie independent-minded workers who seek to exercise their rights under Right to Work laws. Any Kentucky worker who has questions about his or her rights, or encounters any resistance or abuse while trying to exercise his or her workplace rights, is encouraged to contact Foundation staff attorneys for free legal aid.
“It’s not enough to enact Right to Work protections; they must be vigorously defended and enforced,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. Union bosses will go to great lengths to keep workers in their forced-dues grasp. The National Right to Work Foundation will fight to make sure that every Kentuckian’s Right to Work is protected, because no worker should ever be forced to pay union dues or fees just to get or keep a job.”
Staff attorneys are preparing a special legal notice to be released in the coming days to inform all Kentucky workers of their new workplace rights. In addition to its Kentucky task force, the Foundation is also currently active in defending state Right to Work laws in Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Idaho against union lawsuits.
Affected employees are encouraged to call the Foundation’s legal hotline toll-free at 1-800-336-3600 or contact the Foundation online at www.nrtw.org to request free legal assistance or to learn more about their new rights.
New York Childcare Providers Ask Supreme Court to Strike Down Forced Unionization Scheme on First Amendment Grounds
Constitutional challenge would free childcare providers from being forced to accept unwanted union ‘representation’
Washington, DC (December 9, 2016) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a group of New York childcare providers have petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down a compulsory unionism scheme on First Amendment grounds.
The childcare providers are challenging a New York law that empowers union officials to speak for all childcare providers, including those who have not joined and do not support the union, when bargaining with state government.
The providers seek to halt implementation of a New York law that designates the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) as the exclusive bargaining agent for thousands of in-state childcare providers. Under the law, CSEA officials are empowered to negotiate with the State of New York over the providers’ professional practices and a public subsidy they receive for caregiving. The affected providers are either small business owners or family members who care for the children of relatives.
Foundation attorneys argue that the current arrangement violates the providers’ First Amendment right to choose with whom they associate to petition their government by naming a union as their state-designated lobbyist.
The caregivers’ petition builds on the National Right to Work Foundation’s 2014 Supreme Court victory in Harris v. Quinn, which outlawed the collection of mandatory union dues from home-based caregivers. Prior to that decision, the New York law the petitioners are challenging empowered union officials to collect forced dues from all home-based childcare providers. According to Foundation staff attorneys, the Harris precedent suggests that caregivers should also be free from the burden of accepting an unwanted union’s bargaining and mandatory representation.
Foundation staff attorneys are helping home and childcare providers challenge similar schemes in Minnesota, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington State.
“Small business owners and those who help care for relatives’ children should not be forced to associate with labor union officials they have no interest in supporting,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “We hope the Supreme Court takes this opportunity to outlaw government-imposed monopoly union representation for home-based care providers as incompatible with the First Amendment.”
Foundation Staff Attorneys Attend Charter School Conferences to Inform Teachers of Their Rights
Charter school employees increasingly are targets for forced unionization
Springfield, VA (December 9, 2016) – The National Right to Work Foundation is stepping up its efforts to inform charter school teachers and other employees of the legal rights they have to refrain from compulsory unionism. As part of the effort, Foundation staff attorneys are attending charter school conferences in Ohio and Louisiana this month.
Sending Foundation attorneys to these charter school conferences is part of a growing initiative of the Foundation’s legal information program to ensure charter school employees are fully aware of their rights and are able to make an informed decision in regards to unionization.
Union bosses have historically been steadfastly opposed to the existence of charter schools because they see them as a threat to their monopoly over students and teachers. However, as the popularity of charter schools has continued to grow, union officials have been increasingly targeting charter school employees as new sources of forced dues to fill their depleting coffers.
“Teachers and students alike are flocking to charter schools in part because they are largely free of the teacher union monopoly that puts union boss power ahead of what is best for teachers, students and their communities,” National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix commented. “Sending Foundation staff attorneys to these conferences is a crucial part of our charter school initiative to ensure charter school employees are able to make informed decisions about union representation in an atmosphere free from union boss threats, harassment, coercion, or misrepresentation.”
To learn more about the Foundation’s charter school initiative and the legal rights charter school employees have, please visit www.nrtw.org/your-rights-charter.
Charter school teachers, or any other employee who finds themselves the victim of compulsory unionism abuses can contact the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation to request free legal assistance at anytime by calling 1-800-336-3600 or by going to www.nrtw.org/free-legal-aid/
Workers Hit Unions with Federal Charges for Illegal Union Dues Seizures Despite Worker Vote to End the Compulsion
Union bosses continue to seize forced dues from over 50 workers
Washington, D.C. (December 6, 2016) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, two local workers have filed unfair labor practice charges against the International Union of Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA) and its Local 247.
The charges state that union officials continue to seize union dues from their and other employees’ paychecks despite a deauthorization election that eliminated the forced dues clause from the workplace bargaining agreement. Dues check off revocation letters sent to the union by the two workers and many others were ignored.
Troy Golson and Yasir Maatoug work as security guards in the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, D.C. In November 2015 employees in their company, Coastal International Security, successfully won a deauthorization election against the SPFPA union. A deauthorization election can be called by employees to remove the forced-unionism clause that allows union bosses to have a worker fired for refusing to pay the union dues or fees.
After the vote, nearly 100 Coastal employees sent union officials a dues check off revocation letter, which legally stops the collection of forced dues by the union from their paychecks. However, union officials ignored some of the letters and continued seizing dues from at least 50 employees’ paychecks, erroneously claiming workers could not stop payment except in a union-determined “window period.”
Under current National Labor Relations Board law, workers who win a deauthorization election have the right to halt automatic deductions from their paychecks immediately simply by sending the union a revocation letter.
“This is yet another example of union bosses trying to get every last penny in forced dues they can from the workers they claim to ‘represent,’” observed National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “No worker should have to jump through all these hoops just to exercise their legal right. The District of Columbia needs to adopt a Right to Work law to ensure that the right to refrain from union membership or fees is guaranteed for all workers.
West Virginia Worker Moves to Defend Right to Work Law
Right to Work Foundation attorneys filed a motion to intervene for pro-Right to Work Greenbrier hotel employee who opposes mandatory union dues
Charleston, WV (December 5, 2016) – With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, an employee at the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia has filed a motion to intervene in the ongoing lawsuit concerning the recently passed West Virginia Right to Work Law.
Reginald Gibbs, a slot machine technician at the Greenbrier, seeks to intervene in the court case AFL-CIO v. Tomblin that is currently before the Kanawha County Circuit court. The unions’ complaint challenges the West Virginia Right to Work law enacted in February 2016.
Gibbs’ motion argues that, if the law is overturned or blocked by a judicial order, it would force Gibbs to continue to pay fees to a union with which he does not wish to associate. Mr. Gibbs wishes to intervene to support the law because he believes that it is his right to be free from compulsory unionism, and as a worker currently employed at a location with a compulsory unionism agreement, he will suffer from direct harm if union lawyers win their case.
Although the State of West Virginia is already defending the law in the case, the motion notes that Gibbs has a special interest in defending Right to Work and his attorneys can offer legal arguments distinct from those raised by state lawyers.
“Big Labor’s latest attack on the Right to Work comes in a state where there is overwhelmingly support for the measure,” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “That’s why we’re committed to defend the rights of workers against any attempt to delay or overturn West Virginia’s law making union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary.”
Foundation attorneys have already filed two amicus briefs defending the law in this court battle. Foundation attorneys argue that West Virginia’s law is fully constitutional as are the 25 similar state Right to Work laws that are currently in force.
“This lawsuit is very similar to the cases now pending in Wisconsin and Idaho,” continued Mix. “Big Labor’s lawyers are pushing to find any possible loophole they can use to attack worker freedom to protect the union bosses’ forced dues cash flow.”
Allina Nurse Wins Battle Against Union Officials’ Campaign of Intimidation and Threats
Union officials forced to settle case involving illegal strike fine threats against nurse who refused to abandon patients
Minneapolis, MN (December 2, 2016) – After months of waiting, Minnesota nurse Crystal Rehbein has finally won her battle against the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) union officials who tried to discipline her for resigning from the union and continuing to take care of her patients in defiance of a union boss-ordered walkout.
In early June of this year, Rehbein sent a certified letter resigning her membership in the MNA, shortly before the MNA hierarchy announced a weeklong strike at Allina Health Hospitals. As a non-member, Rehbein then exercised her right to continue working and take care of her patients. Following the strike, she was notified by the union brass that her resignation had been rejected, and the MNA continued forcing her to pay dues.
In early August, MNA officials informed Rehbein that internal charges had been brought against her for continuing to work during the strike, and threatened her with fines, reprimand, or censure. Consequently, Rehbein, with the assistance of National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys, then filed federal unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, stating that the union charges and continued collection of dues were unlawful.
Finding merit to Rehbein’s filing, the NLRB Region 18 office arranged a settlement in the case. Under the settlement, MNA officials must post a notice for 60 days in the hospitals where Rehbein and two other charging parties work, notifying all MNA members of their rights. Those rights include, but are not limited to, the right to resign at any time without any specific form, the right to pay dues on a monthly basis if they so choose, and most importantly the right of non-members to continue working during a strike without penalties and threats from the union representatives.
“This is a victory for a brave nurse who chose to exercise her right to continue to work and provide for her family, and to continue providing medical care to her patients,” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Sadly, cases like this just emphasize how much Minnesota needs a Right to Work law to protect its workers from these kinds of tactics used by Big Labor operatives.”
Statement to the Workers at Chicago O’Hare International Airport
Chicago, IL (November 28, 2016) – According to reports, workers at O’Hare International Airport have been ordered by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) union bosses to strike beginning November 29.
Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation, issued the following statement to these workers:
“All too often union officials initiate strikes to further their own power even if striking is not in the best interest of rank-and-file workers, or of the public at large. Affected workers need to know that federal labor law is clear: any worker has the right to remain on the job during a strike if the business remains open. Further, all workers have the right to resign from union membership before crossing a picket line and thus avoid fines and other internal union discipline for going to work.”
To learn more about your rights and how to exercise those rights please click here.
Workers may contact the Foundation through its website www.NRTW.org or by calling the Foundation’s toll-free hotline: 1-800-336-3600. It is very important that affected workers understand their rights, and that they may turn to the Foundation for free legal aid if they encounter union boss resistance when trying to exercise those rights.”
Right to Work Foundation-Backed Employees Force Postal Union Bosses to Disgorge $1 Million Diverted from Backpay Award
American Postal Workers union officials forced to disgorge funds after being caught red-handed skimming back pay settlement intended for rank-and-file workers they claim to ‘represent’
Washington, DC (November 22, 2016) – In a significant victory for workers, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) has chosen to avoid going to trial and instead turn over more than a million dollars that union bosses diverted from the very postal workers they claimed to “represent.”
In December 2014, over seven thousand USPS workers were awarded a lump sum of back pay in an arbitration award. As part of an under the table agreement with the Postal Service, the APWU removed more than 1 million dollars from the award for its own use. In an effort to retrieve the missing money, two of the employees, Louis Mazurek and Scott Fontaine, filed unfair labor practice charges. Worried that the NLRB wasn’t taking their claims seriously, the workers turned to National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys for free legal assistance. The trial was scheduled for Wednesday November 9.
The day before the trial however, the workers were informed that the NLRB had agreed to a settlement with the union. Under the settlement, the APWU is forced to disgorge the money that they had withheld from the arbitration award. The settlement orders $770,804.58, or about 70 percent of the stolen money, to be divided among postal employees, just as the arbiter had originally ordered.
The remaining $330,326.70 is to be placed in a separate escrow account, with spending oversight provided by the NLRB Regional director for the next three years. After the three years any remaining funds will automatically go to the workers.
“It is appalling that the officials of the APWU could so casually take such a large sum from the workers whom they claim to represent.” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “When union officials were caught pocketing over a million dollars from the very workers they claim to represent, merely returning the money taken is a light punishment indeed. The lead union official stated, in a case document available to the public, that they ‘could have taken the whole award,’ but were afraid how embezzling the whole sum would look. ”
“The only thing more troubling is that had Foundation staff attorneys not been there to represent the interests of the rank-and-file workers, the NLRB may have allowed union bosses to keep all or part of the monies that the union bosses embezzled, with no hope of recovery.” continued Mix.
