Worker Slaps Construction Union Bosses with Federal Charge for Job Discrimination
Chicago, IL (July 19, 2012) – With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a nonunion Chicago-area construction worker has filed a federal charge against the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and two of its local affiliate unions for discriminating against him on account of his union membership status.
Construction worker John Lugo filed the charge against the IBEW Local 697 and IBEW Local 601 unions with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Monday.
Because IBEW union bosses claim monopoly bargaining privileges over all the workers in his workplaces, Lugo, who refrains from formal union membership, is still forced to accept union officials’ so-called “representation” and go through the union’s hiring halls to find employment.
Federal labor law provides that union bosses must “fairly represent” workers, including those who have exercised their right to refrain from union membership, if union bosses claim exclusive representational powers over the workers.
However, because Lugo exercised his right to refrain from formal union membership, IBEW union officials require him to jump through extra hoops to obtain employment through the union hiring hall. Even after Lugo completes the extra requirements, IBEW union officials actively obstruct him from obtaining work, making it difficult for Lugo to provide for himself and his family.
“If IBEW union bosses have a problem with treating fairly workers who refrain from union membership, then they should not claim exclusive representation over those workers,” said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. “It is unconscionable that IBEW union officials would stand in the way of independent-minded workers providing for their families – especially in this tough economy.”
Lugo also received free legal assistance from Foundation staff attorneys after IBEW union bosses illegally forced workers to annually renew their objections to paying full union dues. Such schemes, designed to force workers into full-dues-paying union membership, are a clear violation of federal law. The NLRB determined the IBEW union’s annual requirement was unlawful last year.
First Indiana Worker Invokes New Right to Work Law to Cut Off Dues to Teamster Union Bosses
Noblesville, IN (July 16, 2012) – Robert Symonds, a local trucker, has just become one of the first Indiana citizens to exercise his right to stop paying union dues under the new Indiana Right to Work law. Symonds received free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys while he was attempting to cut off further dues payments.
On May 17, 2012, the contract between Teamsters Local 135 and Symonds’ employer, Indianapolis Haulage, expired and a new contract was agreed to. Under Indiana’s Right to Work law, contracts entered into after the law went into effect on March 15, 2012 must respect employees’ rights to refrain from the payment of any union dues. Despite the fact that Symonds resigned his union membership and revoked his dues check-off, Teamster officials told him he wouldn’t be able to stop paying dues until November 2012.
Upon the advice of a Right to Work Foundation attorney, Symonds responded to this obstructionist tactic by sending a letter to his employer, requesting it comply with Indiana law and immediately stop deducting dues from his paychecks. On June 29, Teamster officials sent Symonds a letter indicating they would back down and honor his request to immediately stop deducting union dues.
Symonds’ experience reflects an opportunity thousands of Indiana workers will have in the coming months. Under Indiana’s Right to Work law, forced-dues contracts between unions and employers entered into prior to the legislation’s effective date are still in place throughout the state. As these contracts expire, Indiana workers who were forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment will now have the option to refrain from paying any dues at all.
“We’re happy to report that Robert Symonds has successfully stopped paying dues to a union he no longer belongs to,” said Patrick Semmens, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “You shouldn’t have to pay union dues to get or keep a job, which is why Indiana’s new Right to Work law is right for Hoosiers everywhere.”
Worker Advocate Asks Federal Labor Board to Uphold Precedent Disallowing Forced Unionization of Professors
Worker Advocate Asks Federal Labor Board to Uphold Precedent Disallowing Forced Unionization of Professors
Foundation files brief supporting university professors’ freedom of speech
Washington, DC (July 11, 2012) – The National Right to Work Foundation filed an amicus curiae (‘friend of the court”) brief with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asking the Board to uphold the U.S. Supreme Court’s long-standing precedent that disallows union officials from corralling most university professors into unwanted union affiliation.
Foundation staff attorneys filed the brief with the NLRB in a case involving Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh/Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 38061 union organizers’ attempt to unionize professors at Point Park University in Pittsburgh and ultimately force the professors to pay union dues.
Worker Advocate Asks Federal Labor Board to Uphold Precedent Disallowing Forced Unionization of Professors
Washington, DC (July 11, 2012) – The National Right to Work Foundation filed an amicus curiae (‘friend of the court”) brief with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asking the Board to uphold the U.S. Supreme Court’s long-standing precedent that disallows union officials from corralling most university professors into unwanted union affiliation.
Foundation staff attorneys filed the brief with the NLRB in a case involving Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh/Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 38061 union organizers’ attempt to unionize professors at Point Park University in Pittsburgh and ultimately force the professors to pay union dues.
In their brief, Foundation attorneys argue that universities do not fit the industrial model of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) – the federal law governing private-sector labor relations for non-managerial workers – a conclusion that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in NLRB v. Yeshiva University (1980). In Yeshiva, the Court reasoned that faculty members are endowed with “managerial status” at most universities and removed them from the scope of the NLRA.
In a previous ruling in the Park Point University case, the NLRB ignored the U.S. Supreme Court precedent and rubber-stamped the unionization of the university’s professors. Point Park University has refused to accept the Local 38061 as the professors’ monopoly bargaining agent, and the case is now pending before the Board again.
Foundation staff attorneys also argue in their amicus brief that allowing union officials monopoly bargaining power over all Point Park University professors would violate the freedom of speech rights of dissenting facility members, thereby undermining academic freedom. Forced unionization would also undermine many universities’ own institutional missions.
“Local 38061 officials’ strong-handed attempt to corral college professors into unwanted union affiliation and force them to pay dues for unwanted union ‘representation’ can only be explained as that the union bosses see the Board’s current makeup favorable to forced unionism,” stated Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “If they succeed, university professors nationwide could be susceptible to unwanted unionization and dues payments and forced to subsidize union boss political activity that runs contrary to universities’ and professors’ values.”
Pro-Right to Work Employees File Formal Comments with Indiana Department of Labor
Pro-Right to Work Employees File Formal Comments with Indiana Department of Labor
Agency considers rules regarding enforcement of new law, workers argue for strong rules to ease enforcement of workers’ Right to Work protections
Indianapolis, IN (July 11, 2012) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, two Indiana workers filed formal comments with the Indiana Department of Labor (DOL) in support of their newly-enacted Right to Work freedoms as the agency drafts regulations for the enforcement of the law.
Douglas Richards, an employee with Goshen-based Cequent Towing Products and David Brubaker, who works for Georgia Pacific, filed their comments this morning.
Both Richards’s and Brubaker’s workplaces are unionized by the United Steel Workers (USW) union hierarchy. Both workers have refrained from union membership. However, they are still forced to accept USW union officials’ so-called “representation,” and are required to pay dues to the union as a condition of employment, until their employers’ old contracts with the union expire.
Pro-Right to Work Employees File Formal Comments with Indiana Department of Labor
Indianapolis, IN (July 11, 2012) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, two Indiana workers filed formal comments with the Indiana Department of Labor (DOL) in support of their newly-enacted Right to Work freedoms as the agency drafts regulations for the enforcement of the law.
Douglas Richards, an employee with Goshen-based Cequent Towing Products and David Brubaker, who works for Georgia Pacific, filed their comments this morning.
Both Richards’s and Brubaker’s workplaces are unionized by the United Steel Workers (USW) union hierarchy. Both workers have refrained from union membership. However, they are still forced to accept USW union officials’ so-called “representation,” and are required to pay dues to the union as a condition of employment, until their employers’ old contracts with the union expire.
In their comments, the workers contend that job applicants are properly included under Indiana’s Right to Work protections and that the proposed 90 day statute of limitations on violations of the Right to Work law should be extended to two years. They also suggest that the regulations make it more clear that union officials can be held accountable for violating workers’ Right to Work protections, among other changes to the proposed rules.
In May, the two workers filed an amicus curiae brief to defend their Right to Work protections from a frivolous USW union legal challenge in state court. The anti-Right to Work lawsuit makes a number of dubious claims about Indiana’s new law, including the argument that unions have a right to force workers to pay for their unwanted services.
Brubaker and Richards stated in their court brief that union monopoly bargaining agreements that force nonmember employees to subsidize union activities – such as the agreements both workers are currently subject to under the USW union hierarchy – infringe on their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association.
“These two workers stand steadfast in support of their newly-enacted Right to Work freedoms,” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “We are pleased to help them and all of Indiana’s workers exercise their rights under Indiana’s Right to Work law during this transition and in the future.”
A Foundation staff attorney testified before the Indiana DOL about the proposed Right to Work regulations yesterday.
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.
SEIU Officials Face Charge for Violating State Pharmacist’s Rights
SEIU Officials Face Charge for Violating State Pharmacist’s Rights
Case shows desperate need for California Right to Work law to make union membership and dues strictly voluntary
San Jose, CA (July 10, 2012) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a Santa Clara Valley Medical Center pharmacist has filed a state charge against a local union for illegally refusing to honor his right to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership.
Jeffrey Lum of Cupertino filed the charge with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) against Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521 for illegally forcing him into full union dues payments against his will.
Lum, a state employee, exercised his right to refrain from formal union membership in November 2011 and sent a letter to the SEIU notifying the union hierarchy of his decision.
SEIU Officials Face Charge for Violating State Pharmacist’s Rights
San Jose, CA (July 10, 2012) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a Santa Clara Valley Medical Center pharmacist has filed a state charge against a local union for illegally refusing to honor his right to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership.
Jeffrey Lum of Cupertino filed the charge with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) against Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521 for illegally forcing him into full union dues payments against his will.
Lum, a state employee, exercised his right to refrain from formal union membership in November 2011 and sent a letter to the SEIU notifying the union hierarchy of his decision. Because California does not have Right to Work protections making union affiliation completely voluntary, workers who refrain from formal union membership may still be forced to pay part of union dues to keep their jobs. However, nonmember workers cannot be required to pay union dues spent for union activities like political activism, lobbying, and member-only events.
SEIU Local 521 officials acknowledged Lum’s resignation letter but still continue to extract full union dues from his paychecks – claiming Lum’s resignation from formal union membership did not meet the union’s criteria. Under California state law and federal case law, workers have the unconditional right to refrain from formal union membership.
Lum’s charge seeks an acknowledgment from the union that he is no longer a formal member, an independently-audited breakdown of union expenditures, a refund of illegally-seized forced union dues from his paycheck dating back to January, and the posting of notices in the workplace informing workers of their right to refrain from union membership.
“SEIU bosses are nitpicking the rules to illegally coerce workers into full-dues-paying union ranks against their will,” said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. “To prevent these types of forced unionism abuses in the future, California desperately needs to pass a Right to Work law making union affiliation and dues payments completely voluntary.”
Twenty-three states have Right to Work protections for workers. Recent public polling shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans and 80 percent of union members support the Right to Work principle of voluntary unionism.
“Big Labor, Big Spending”
Fox Business has a great report on union bosses’ extravagant spending habits, including lavish junkets and visits to luxury resort hotels:
Besides the tens-of-millions of dollars big labor spent buying luxury resorts, country clubs or Learjets, labor unions are also spending millions of dollars in tax-free union funds on conferences at lavish hotels and resorts — including junkets at resorts owned by the unions themselves . . .
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), run by Richard Trumka, is the largest umbrella federation of unions in the U.S., with 56 unions representing more than 12 million. Its officials have been living large at member expense.
AFL-CIO unions spent at least $2.6 million in union funds on junkets to nine conferences at places like the Flamingo Hotel or Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, including more than $1.7 million at the swanky union-ownedWestin Diplomat resort and golf club in Florida, from 2010 to 2011, government documents show . . .
Luxury getaways aren’t the only thing Big Labor is buying, however. According to The Wall Street Journal, unions spent over 4.4 billion dollars on electioneering from 2005 to 2011, a figure that exceeds previous estimates (except for two studies by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research) by a factor of four:
The usual measure of unions’ clout encompasses chiefly what they spend supporting federal candidates through their political-action committees, which are funded with voluntary contributions, and lobbying Washington, which is a cost borne by the unions’ own coffers. These kinds of spending, which unions report to the Federal Election Commission and to Congress, totaled $1.1 billion from 2005 through 2011,according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The unions’ reports to the Labor Department capture an additional $3.3 billion that unions spent over thesame period on political activity.
The costs reported to the Labor Department range from polling fees, to money spent persuading union members to vote a certain way, to bratwursts to feed Wisconsin workers protesting at the state capitol last year. Much of this kind of spending comes not from members’ contributions to a PAC but directly from unions’ dues-funded coffers. There is no requirement that unions report all of this kind of spending to the Federal Election Commission, or FEC.
Much of this political cash is collected from nonunion workers forced to pay dues as a condition of employment. These employees aren’t affiliated with unions and often disagree with their political agenda. Technically, union officials are supposed to allow nonunion employees to opt out of paying for union political spending, but – as recent Right to Work cases demonstrate – that requirement is often ignored or actively subverted.
Whether it’s politics or luxury junkets, the only real solution to Big Labor’s lavish spending is right to work laws, which make the payment of union dues strictly voluntary. The power to extract dues from unwilling workers has made union bosses unaccountable. If unions were solely dependent on voluntary contributions, they’d be much less likely to risk alienating their supporters with divisive political lobbying or lavish getaways for the higher-ups.
Tenth Circuit Slaps Teamster Union With Sanctions
Tenth Circuit Slaps Teamster Union With Sanctions
Teamster union bosses sought to punish worker refraining from union membership
Denver, CO (July 6, 2012) – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has upheld a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling against a local Teamster union policy that discriminated against nonunion workers employed by Interstate Bakeries in Oklahoma.
Oklahoma worker Kirk Rammage received free assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation during his six and a half year legal battle challenging the Teamster union’s discriminatory policy.
Rammage was the single nonunion sales representative with Dolly Madison for over 15 years before his division was merged in 2005 with Wonder Bread/Hostess. Although the company initially wanted to protect Rammage’s seniority during the merger, Teamsters Local 523 union officials insisted that union members receive preferential treatment by putting Rammage at the bottom of the seniority roster despite his longer workplace tenure. The company later caved in to the union bosses’ demand.
At Interstate Bakeries, seniority increases employees’ chances of securing desirable sales routes. By insisting that Rammage lose his seniority, Teamster officials effectively signaled that union workers took priority over their nonunion colleagues. As a result, Rammage was forced to commute to a new work location more than 70 miles away.
