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.

Click here to read the full release.

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.

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.”

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.

Click here to read the full release.

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.

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.”

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.

Click here to read the full release.

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.”

Longmont Police Officers Hit Police Union, Longmont City Officials with Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit

Right to Work Foundation attorneys help officers challenge union hierarchy for violating their constitutional rights

Denver, CO (October 5, 2012) – Two Longmont city police officers have filed a federal lawsuit against a local Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) union and the city for violating their rights.

Cary Nickolls and James Bundy filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in Denver with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

Click here to read the full release.

Denver, CO (October 5, 2012) – Two Longmont city police officers have filed a federal lawsuit against a local Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) union and the city for violating their rights.

Cary Nickolls and James Bundy filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in Denver with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

Both Nickolls and Bundy refrain from formal union membership in the Longmont Fraternal Order of Police (LFOP) Lodge 6 union, an affiliate of the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, and invoked their right to not pay full union dues.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Foundation’s Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson (1986) case that union officials can collect union fees as a condition of employment, but must first provide nonmember public workers with an independently-audited financial breakdown of all forced-dues union expenditures and the opportunity to object and challenge the amount of forced union fees before an impartial decision maker. This minimal safeguard is designed to ensure that workers have an opportunity to refrain from paying for union boss political activities and lobbying and union member-only events.

LFOP union and city officials demanded forced union fees from the officers even though union officials have continuously refused to provide an audited breakdown of FOP and LFOP union expenditures.

The City is named as a defendant in the lawsuit for its complicity in agreeing to and enforcing the forced dues clause in the monopoly bargaining agreement.

The officers seek refunds of all forced union fees illegally demanded, with interest, and to enjoin future collection of any fees until LFOP union officials comply with the requirements the Supreme Court laid down in Hudson.

“To keep their forced-dues gravy train going, Colorado police union bosses are violating the rights of officers who are sworn to protect the general public,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Colorado needs to pass Right to Work protections for all its workers to free them from the handcuffs of forced union affiliation and dues payments.”