Chicago, IL (August 14, 2012) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, three Wisconsin public employees asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to uphold all of Governor Scott Walker’s public-sector unionism reform measures, known as “Act 10.”

Pleasant Prairie teacher Kristi Lacroix, Waukesha high school teacher Nathan Berish, and trust fund specialist at the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds Ricardo Cruz filed their reply brief Monday.

The workers, who are forced to accept the “representation” of union officials, want instead the freedom to represent themselves with their employers. The workers are challenging a lower court judge’s ruling striking down Wisconsin’s new union recertification requirements and the ban on the use of taxpayer funded-payroll systems to collect union dues for general employees, as well as excluding them from the case.

The workers stated in their initial brief in the district court that “they equate the ‘services’ provided by (union officials) to be akin to those of some itinerant street window washers who sling dirty water on your car windshield, smear it around, and then demand payment” and do not feel the state should be the bagman for union officials.

In their brief, the workers ask the appellate court to uphold the law as constitutional, relying on the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court Davenport v. WEA victory in which the Supreme Court unanimously held that union bosses enjoy an “extraordinary power” to force workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment, but have no constitutional right to use government resources to deduct union dues or fees from workers’ paychecks.

Meanwhile, three additional Wisconsin civil servants continue to defend Walker’s reforms against union challenges in other cases pending before state and federal courts.

“Union bosses from across the state of Wisconsin are fighting tooth and nail to strike down any limit to their power,” said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. “No worker should ever be forced to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment, which is why Wisconsin should go a step further by passing Right to Work protections to protect all Badger State employees from forced union affiliation.”

Worker Advocate Challenges Obama Recess Appointments in Federal Court

Attorneys argue purported recess appointments are invalid because Senate was not in actual recess

Washington, DC (August 13, 2012) – National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed a brief in the high-profile legal battle over President Barack Obama’s recent purported recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Foundation attorneys filed the amicus curiae brief on Monday in the case Center for Social Change, Inc. v. NLRB, pending now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Click here to read the full release.

Washington, DC (August 13, 2012) – National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed a brief in the high-profile legal battle over President Barack Obama’s recent purported recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Foundation attorneys filed the amicus curiae brief on Monday in the case Center for Social Change, Inc. v. NLRB, pending now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Another direct legal challenge to the Obama recess appointments is a Foundation case pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. That case is among the first in the nation to reach the appellate courts challenging the Obama recess appointments and will help set the standard for all further challenges.

Foundation staff attorneys argue in their brief that the recess appointments are unconstitutional because the U.S. Senate was still in session per the body’s rules. Therefore the President could not make the appointments to the NLRB without Senate confirmation.

If Foundation attorneys’ argument that the Obama’s NLRB appointments are unconstitutional prevails, then the Board has only two valid members. The Board would then have lacked a quorum since December 2011 to enact rules or enforce federal labor law under a U.S. Supreme Court precedent established in 2010.

“Barack Obama’s so-called recess appointments to the Labor Board clearly violate the U.S. Constitution,” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Because the Board does not have a legitimate quorum, it must cease handing down rulings in Foundation-supported cases, and all other cases, until a legitimate quorum is established.”

Washington, DC (August 6, 2012) – In response to the National Mediation Board’s proposed rule changes regarding union elections in the air and railway industries, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, an organization that provides free assistance to thousands of workers nationwide, submitted comments faulting the Board for ignoring the law’s persistent bias toward forced unionization.

The Foundation’s comments focus on the hurdles facing employees in the air and railway industries who wish to remove unwanted union “representation.” Under current law, the Railway Labor Act lacks an explicit procedure for ejecting a union. The Foundation’s comments encourage the National Mediation Board to regularize union decertification procedures to allow rail and airline workers to more easily remove an unwanted union presence.

The Foundation’s comments also urge the Board to allow all workers – including new hires – to vote in unionization elections even if they were not part of the company when a petition for a unionization election was first submitted. Finally, the comments argue that the 50 percent showing of interest threshold that triggers unionization elections should be applied when new bargaining units are created as a result of a merger instead of a lower threshold supported by unions.

“Currently, employees in the rail and airline industries have no clear blueprint for removing an unwanted union from their workplaces,” said Patrick Semmens, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The National Mediation Board’s proposed rule changes make no effort to correct this glaring omission, which gives union bosses carte blanche to run roughshod over workers’ rights once they acquire monopoly bargaining privileges.”

Federal Settlement Will Force SEIU to Leave Local Hospital Workers Alone

Union organizers conspired to force healthcare workers into union ranks using coercive “card check” tactics

Orange, CA (August 3, 2012) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Chapman Medical Center workers have won federal settlements that will remove unwanted Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Workers West officials’ representation from their workplace.

Chapman management and SEIU officials have signed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) settlements after Marlene Felter of Costa Mesa filed charges with the agency in response to SEIU organizers colluding with Chapman management to illegally rig a union organizing “vote” to pave the way for the union to claim to “represent” the workers. Under the settlements, SEIU must give up its “exclusive representation” and Chapman will publicly withdraw recognition of the union.

Click here to read the full release.

Orange, CA (August 3, 2012) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Chapman Medical Center workers have won federal settlements that will remove unwanted Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Workers West officials’ representation from their workplace.

Chapman management and SEIU officials have signed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) settlements after Marlene Felter of Costa Mesa filed charges with the agency in response to SEIU organizers colluding with Chapman management to illegally rig a union organizing “vote” to pave the way for the union to claim to “represent” the workers. Under the settlements, SEIU must give up its “exclusive representation” and Chapman will publicly withdraw recognition of the union.

SEIU and hospital officials entered into a backroom deal, known as a so-called “neutrality agreement,” in which hospital management granted union operatives access to company facilities to conduct a coercive “card check” organizing campaign, and waived the right to have a federally-supervised secret ballot election to determine whether employees wished to be unionized. Union organizers frequently use “card check” organizing tactics to bribe, browbeat, or cajole workers into union representation and forced-union-dues payments against their will.

In response to the union’s coercive tactics, a majority of hospital workers signed cards, letters, and petitions stating that they did not want the SEIU bosses’ so-called “representation.” Instead of respecting the employees’ wishes, Chapman management accepted SEIU officials as the workers’ monopoly bargaining agents after a rigged “card count” was held. Chapman and SEIU officials were in the process of negotiating a contract which almost certainly would include a provision to force the workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment, because California does not have a Right to Work law that makes union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary.

The NLRB Regional Office subpoenaed records from SEIU and found that SEIU union bosses illegally claimed to represent the Chapman workers without majority support.

“Chapman and SEIU officials colluded to shove SEIU union bosses’ ‘representation’ – and with it forced dues payments – down workers’ throats,” said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. “Schemes like this show that the ultimate goal of union officials is more forced dues collected from workers, even when rank-and-file employees want nothing to do with the union. This further makes the case that California desperately needs a Right to Work law on the books making union affiliation completely voluntary.”

State Trooper Files Charge Against Connecticut State Police Union

Union bosses violate Connecticut state police trooper’s rights

Hartford, CT (August 2, 2012) – A Connecticut state trooper has filed a state charge against a local union for violating his rights.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, state police trooper Marc Lamberty of Hartford County filed the charge with the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations.

In June 2011, Lamberty resigned from formal union membership in the Connecticut State Police Union and invoked his right to refrain from paying full union dues.

Click here to read the full release.

Hartford, CT (August 2, 2012) – A Connecticut state trooper has filed a state charge against a local union for violating his rights.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, state police trooper Marc Lamberty of Hartford County filed the charge with the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations.

In June 2011, Lamberty resigned from formal union membership in the Connecticut State Police Union and invoked his right to refrain from paying 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 union member-only events.

Union officials continue to deduct full union dues from the officer’s paychecks as if he is a union member. After Lamberty sent a letter requesting that union officials acknowledge his rights and provide him with the financial breakdown of the union’s expenditures, union bosses refunded only three months of the illegally-taken money and promised to provide the required disclosure documents.

To date, union officials refuse to return the rest of the illegally-taken union dues to the trooper, provide him with a breakdown of union expenditures and give him an opportunity to challenge the forced union fees before an independent third party.

Lamberty seeks refunds of the amount of forced union dues payments illegally taken from his paychecks and to enjoin future collection of any dues until union officials comply with the requirements the Supreme Court established in Hudson.

“Again and again union officials keep rank-and-file workers in the dark to keep their forced-dues gravy train going,” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “To prevent these types of forced unionism abuses in the future, Connecticut needs to pass a Right to Work law making union affiliation and dues payments completely voluntary for all of its workers.”

Twenty-three states have Right to Work protections for workers. Recent public polling shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans and union members support the Right to Work principle of voluntary unionism.

Chicago, IL (August 1, 2012) – A State Street Macy’s Walnut Room restaurant worker has filed a federal charge against a local union for intimidating her and violating her rights.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Kathi Szkolny filed the federal charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board, Workers United Local 2745 union on Monday.

Workers United Local 2745 union officials illegally misinformed workers that they must pay full union dues to keep their jobs. Union officials refused to inform workers of their right under Foundation-won Supreme Court precedent in Communication Workers v. Beck to refrain from full dues paying union membership.

In Beck, the Court held that workers who refrain from union membership cannot be forced to pay for union activities unrelated to workplace bargaining, such as politics and political lobbying. Additionally, union officials are required to provide audited financial disclosure of union expenditures to inform workers who refrain from union membership of how their forced dues are being spent.

Despite the union bosses’ misinformation, Szkolny exercised her right to refrain from formal union membership. However, because Illinois does not have Right to Work protections making union affiliation completely voluntary, she is still forced to pay part of forced union dues to keep her job.

Union officials have refused to provide the adequate disclosure to ensure that nonmember restaurant workers are fully aware of the amount of forced union fees the union hierarchy can legally confiscate from their paychecks.

Instead, union officials are demanding that Szkolny pay nearly $1,000 in full union dues by August 1 or be fired from her job.

“Workers United Local 2745 union officials are intimidating workers and keeping workers in the dark about their rights in order to keep their forced-dues gravy train going,” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Illinois desperately needs a Right to Work law to protect workers from unscrupulous union bosses.”

Workers Challenge Obama NLRB “Recess Appointments” in Federal Appeals Court

Worker advocate argues Labor Board does not have legitimate quorum to hear pending cases because Congress was not in actual recess

Chicago, IL (July 30, 2012) – Four workers filed a brief today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago challenging President Barack Obama’s recent purported recess appointees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

David Yost and Ronald Echegaray of Morgantown, West Virginia, Doug Richards of Ligonier, Indiana, and John Lugo of Chicago, Illinois filed the brief with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

Click here to read the full release.