Fort Jackson Security Guard Takes Courageous Stand Against Repeated Union Boss Threats and Abuses
Fort Jackson Security Guard Takes Courageous Stand Against Repeated Union Boss Threats and Abuses
National Labor Relations Board agents investigate charges after Right to Work Foundation attorneys join worker’s efforts
Columbia, South Carolina (October 30, 2009) – A local employee of Wackenhut Services, Inc, a security service provider contracted with Fort Jackson, is fighting back against compulsory unionism after union officials illegally attempted to have him fired from his job for refusing to pay forced union dues.
In September 2008, Ronald I. Paul filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) challenging Wackenhut and International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA) and its affiliated Local 339 union bosses after Wackenhut fired him in August 2008 for refraining from formal, dues paying union membership. The charges were eventually settled in December of 2008 and Paul continued his employment.
Starting in May 2009, in violation of the settlement, the employer and SPFPA union officials issued new threats against Paul’s job.
Fort Jackson Security Guard Takes Courageous Stand Against Repeated Union Boss Threats and Abuses
Columbia, South Carolina (October 30, 2009) – A local employee of Wackenhut Services, Inc, a security service provider contracted with Fort Jackson, is fighting back against compulsory unionism after union officials illegally attempted to have him fired from his job for refusing to pay forced union dues.
In September 2008, Ronald I. Paul filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) challenging Wackenhut and International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA) and its affiliated Local 339 union bosses after Wackenhut fired him in August 2008 for refraining from formal, dues paying union membership. The charges were eventually settled in December of 2008 and Paul continued his employment.
Starting in May 2009, in violation of the settlement, the employer and SPFPA union officials issued new threats against Paul’s job. Claiming that Paul’s workplace is on an “exclusive federal enclave” not protected by South Carolina’s popular Right to Work law, SPFPA union officials compelled Paul to attend a meeting and coerced him to apply for union membership as a condition to keep his job. In response, Paul filed another round of unfair labor practice charges against the union – pointing out that the union’s own contract explicitly states that formal union membership is not a condition of employment. In September, the NLRB notified Mr. Paul that his charges would be dismissed.
Attorneys from the National Right to Work Foundation contacted Mr. Paul offering free legal aid (which Paul eagerly accepted), and the regional NLRB office in Winston-Salem, North Carolina is now investigating Paul’s charges and additional charges filed by Foundation attorneys. Related charges against Wackenhut are also pending.
In the Foundation-won Communication Workers of America v. Beck (1988), the U.S. Supreme Court held that union officials can lawfully compel nonmembers to pay union dues as a job condition, but not the part of dues spent for non-bargaining activities like political activism, lobbying, and member-only events. Under Beck, unions must also provide such employees with an audited breakdown of chargeable expenses.
SPFPA union officials continue to threaten Paul despite the fact that they did not provide him with an adequate explanation as required under Beck for the basis of their claims against a portion of his earnings. Additionally, SPFPA union bosses are requiring employees who refrain from formal, dues paying union membership to partake in an overly burdensome process of specifying the amount of non-bargaining dues they do not wish to pay without providing them with sufficient information to make such a decision. And finally, Paul is challenging the SPFPA union’s nationwide policy of requiring employees to object every single year to paying union dues they cannot be lawfully forced to pay – rather than objecting just once.
“SPFPA union bosses have repeatedly reneged on their own word and we hope the NLRB will now hold them accountable for their thuggery,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Right to Work litigators stand guard with Mr. Paul to protect him from union bosses who will stop at nothing to seize hard earned money for their own purposes.”
Podcast: Right to Work Warns of Big Labor NLRB Appointees
National Right to Work Committee Legislative Director Greg Mourad sits down with Breitbart TV to discuss Craig Becker, Obama’s radical nominee to the National Labor Relations Board. Click here to listen or use the embeddable player below:
Employees Slap Teamster Bosses with Federal Charges for Blocking Their Attempt to Stop Paying Full Union Dues
Jackson, MI (October 28, 2009) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, three local employees have filed unfair labor practice charges against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 164 union for obstructing their attempts to opt-out of forced union dues.
Michael Vetrovec, Robert Harris, and Larry Kunk are employed by Perfection Associates L.L.C. in Jackson, Michigan. All three employees object to Teamster membership and attempted to opt-out of paying full union dues.
Because Michigan lacks a Right to Work law, employees can be forced to pay certain union dues as a condition of employment. But the Foundation-won Supreme Court decision Communication Workers v. Beck guarantees the right of workers to opt-out of forced dues intended for purposes other than workplace bargaining, including lobbying, political activism, and members-only activities.
However, Teamsters officials have not stopped collecting forced dues from Vetrovec, Harris, and Kunk earmarked for non-chargeable activities. Union officials have also failed to provide them with an independently audited breakdown of union expenditures, which is required by law to ensure that workers are not being compelled to pay for objectionable activities.
Moreover, union officials told Vetrovec that he would have to sign another check-off form authorizing the automatic payroll deduction of union dues if he wanted to opt-out of dues unrelated to collective bargaining. Previous Foundation-won precedents have also established that non-members cannot be required to authorize automatic dues deduction.
The charges will now be investigated by the National Labor Relations Board.
“While we’re confident that this dispute will be resolved in favor of the workers, no one should have to file federal charges just to keep their hard-earned salary from being diverted to fund a union’s radical politics,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The best way to end this type of abuse would be for Michigan to adopt a Right to Work law, making the payment of union dues strictly voluntary.”
Fact Sheet: Families Benefit from Right to Work Laws
The National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR) has released a telling study comparing Right to Work states with forced-unionism states in a variety of statistical categories. The statistics, provided by various governmental departments and agencies as well as respected non-profits, show the stunning economic and personal benefits families enjoy from their states’ popular Right to Work laws.
The last five years of available data shows that workers in Right to Work states not only enjoy higher non-farm private-sector job growth (9.1% versus 3.6% from 2003-2008), but their real personal incomes are also growing faster (15.8% vs. 9.1% from 2003-2008) and they enjoy a higher disposable income ($34,878 vs. $32,811 in 2008) than their counterparts in forced unionism states.
Families in Right to Work states also benefit from lower taxes and are more likely to buy a home, send their children to college, and gain private, employment-based health insurance for parents and children alike.
While Right to Work is about employee freedom in the workplace, NILRR‘s analysis shows that rolling back coercive union power has undeniable economic benefits as well.
To view the full details of NILRR‘s report entitled "Right to Work States Benefit From Faster Growth, Higher Real Purchasing Power — 2009 Update," click here.
NRTW In the News: Forced Unionism Radical Craig Becker Dangerous to Workers’ Rights
Today, President Barack Obama’s nomination of pro-compulsory unionism radical Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is scheduled to be taken up in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
National Right to Work President Mark Mix warns in today’s Washington Times of the grave dangers Becker’s possible confirmation will pose to workers’ rights:
When the union bosses have the NLRB in their fold, workers who try to exercise their legal rights to dismiss unwanted union monopoly bargaining agents – or even to stop their forced dues from being used to elect handpicked Big Labor candidates – are denied even the most basic protections.
That’s why, especially considering Mr. Becker’s record, it’s not a stretch to believe that – should he be confirmed by the U.S. Senate – Mr. Becker wouldn’t think twice about rubber-stamping even the most abusive forced unionism schemes cooked up by union militants.
In fact, as a former AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) lawyer, Mr. Becker is solely responsible for forcing tens of thousands of workers under union boss control.
In one case, reports from a Los Angeles SEIU local union revealed that almost 63,000 people rejected membership in the union in 2007, but thanks to Mr. Becker, were still forced to pay dues.
And Mr. Becker’s own words explain why. He was even so bold as to say unions were "formed to escape the evils of individualism and individual competition … their actions necessarily involve coercion."
With that kind of anything-goes attitude, it’s no surprise Mr. Becker supports "home visits," in which union militants repeatedly harass workers at home until they sign union-authorization cards, and even advocates letting Mr. Obama’s handpicked arbiters impose contracts on workers, without even allowing the workers to vote on their own contract.
In fact, Mr. Becker is so extreme he actually believes the only choice workers should have is which union they should be forced to join and pay dues to!
In Mr. Becker’s view, if an independent worker refuses to pick, he and the rest of Big Labor’s lackeys on the NLRB should be able to choose a union for that worker. This kind of Big Labor kowtowing is not only outrageous, but it’s also dangerous.
To read all of Mark Mix’s op-ed in the Washington Times click here.
Fox Business Video: Why Union Bosses Are Pushing for Government-Run Health Care
Right to Work President Mark Mix appeared on Fox Business yesterday to explain Big Labor’s supposed opposition to the Baucus health care plan. The reality is union bosses are quietly licking their chops, because every pending proposal would hand them billions of taxpayer dollars and grease the skids for the forced unionization of the health care field:
Sickening Blagojevich Legacy Ready to Metastasize to Rest of Country
The alarming trend of politicians forcing workers into union ranks continues in Illinois as Governor Pat Quinn — in order to win Big Labor’s political support — is resurrecting the sordid legacy of disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich (and Gray Davis of California) subverting workers’ rights to benefit forced dues-hungry union bosses.
Quinn recently signed an executive order arbitrarily reclassifying state-reimbursed in-home health-care providers as state employees — thereby opening them up to forced unionism under state law. Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union organizers, armed by the state with the addresses of Illinois’s nearly 3,500 in-home health-care providers, are competing to corral home health-care providers into compulsory union membership by going door-to-door to solicit support for their respective unions.
Pam Harris, a mother who stays home to take care of her son with special needs, was visited by two aggressive out-of-state SEIU organizers at her front door. Understandably, Ms. Harris is worried that the Detroit-style labor relations that destroyed America’s auto industry could also destroy her right to care for her son as she wants. (To say nothing of the union dues she will be forced to pay for the “privilege.”)
Because she does not live in a state with Right to Work protections, if SEIU union bosses are successful in corralling all home health-care providers into forced dues membership, Ms. Harris will be forced to pay tribute to union bosses just to continue to take care of her own son — even if she refrains from formal union membership.
However, as many Freedom@Work readers may already be aware, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Just last month, National Right to Work President Mark Mix reiterated in the Wall Street Journal NRTW’s previous warnings that union bosses are working to unionize the health-care industry and that under Obamacare, the very thing that is happening in Illinois will happen nationwide:
Following [the Davis/Blagojevich] playbook, pending government-run health care bills create a "personal care attendants workforce advisory panel" that will likely impose union affiliation on hundreds of thousands of folks like Ms. Harris to qualify for a newly created "community living assistance services and support (CLASS)" reimbursement plan.
Ms. Sebelius will be taking her marching orders from the numerous union officials who are guaranteed seats on the various federal panels (such as the personal care panel mentioned above) charged with recommending health-care policies. Big Labor will play a central role in directing federal health-care policy…
Wall Street Journal Warns of “ACORN’s Ally at the NLRB”
Though it doesn’t get nearly as much attention as other high-profile appointments, President Obama has recently nominated several new members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency which oversees private sector labor relations and the federal policy of forced unionism.
These appointments have far-reaching implications for employee freedom, so it’s important that NLRB nominees are thoroughly vetted before they take office.
Unfortunately, Obama’s latest choice for the NLRB, Craig Becker, has radical views on the extent of union coercive power, and he comes directly out of the all-powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) whose bosses have been as thick as thieves with the notoriously corrupt Big Labor front group ACORN. Here’s The Wall Street Journal on Becker’s troubling history and his role in drafting Obama executive orders while on the SEIU union payroll:
One of Big Labor’s priorities in Washington is to place allies in key government jobs where they can overturn existing labor policy without battles in Congress. This is a very good reason for the Senate to hold a hearing on the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Mr. Becker is associate general counsel at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is most recently in the news for its close ties to Acorn, the disgraced housing shakedown operation. President Obama nominated Mr. Becker in April to the five-member NLRB, which has the critical job of supervising union elections, investigating labor practices, and interpreting the National Labor Relations Act. In a 1993 Minnesota Law Review article, written when he was a UCLA professor, Mr. Becker argued for rewriting current union-election rules in favor of labor. And he suggested the NLRB could do this by regulatory fiat, without a vote of Congress.
Read the whole thing here. As a member of the NLRB, Becker will be in a position to rewrite American labor law and achieve his stated goals of marginalizing employees from the process of deciding whether they are unionized. Allies of worker freedom should be extremely concerned about this nomination.
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Previous Foundation coverage of Becker’s radical views can be found here, here and here.
Release: Nonunion Worker Challenges San Diego’s Discriminatory School Construction Scheme
Nonunion Worker Challenges San Diego’s Discriminatory School Construction Scheme
Right to Work attorneys argue pact between San Diego school district and
union officials intends to illegally coerce workers into union ranks
San Diego, CA (October 7, 2009) – National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys today filed federal unfair labor practice charges against local area unions for establishing a discriminatory, union-only construction scheme with the San Diego Unified School District. The agreement enriches union officials, punishes nonunion workers and employers, and sticks taxpayers with the bill.
The discrimination against nonunion construction workers is facilitated by a so-called “Project Labor Agreement” (PLA) – essentially a collective bargaining agreement signed by contractors as a condition of performing work on a government-funded construction project. Arguing that the PLA between the school district and various unions (including the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters and San Diego Building & Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO) illegally discriminates against construction workers who exercise their right to refrain from union membership, Foundation attorneys are defending the interests of the vast majority of construction employees in California who have opted against unionization.
