To restore accountability, workers must have free choice to refuse to fund union and reject union monopoly representation

Washington, DC (June 29, 2020) – On the eve of an announced meeting between US Attorney Matthew Schneider and new United Auto Workers (UAW) President Rory Gamble, National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix released a letter he sent urging Schneider to consider worker-empowering reforms for the corruption-plagued union.

The letter was sent Friday following reports that Schneider will meet with UAW President Rory Gamble on June 30 to discuss the union’s future after the widespread federal probe of the union leadership’s corruption.

The investigation has uncovered the misspending of millions of dollars in worker funds by prominent UAW officials up to and including former president Gary Jones. The investigation has snagged convictions of at least 14 people, including at least 11 people affiliated with the UAW so far. A full federal takeover of the union has been discussed by federal law enforcement officials, and news reports say that Gamble himself may be under scrutiny as well.

In the letter, Mix points out that coercive privileges granted to the UAW by federal law created an environment where UAW officials could all too easily take advantage of workers, writing:

“UAW union officials have perpetrated this abuse using the extraordinary powers granted to them by federal law — primarily their dual coercive powers of monopoly exclusive representation and authorization to cut deals mandating that rank-and-file workers pay union dues or fees, or else be fired…”

The letter urges that any reforms must “squarely address” the control that union officials have over rank-and-file workers, suggesting that federal agents should “impose an immediate recertification vote for every union local touched by the corruption,” “empower workers as individuals to fight corruption through refusing to fund the UAW,” and “impose an independent auditor tasked with providing full transparency to rank-and-file workers of all union financial transactions.” These remedies, Mix says, should be “part of a federal takeover of the union, or at least…required of the union to avoid a federal takeover.”

Mix concludes by observing that “this is far from the first time unaccountable union officials have been caught funding their limousine lifestyles with…funds that were supposed to serve workers’ interests.” In light of past fixes not deterring union bosses from abusing their power, Mix exhorts Schneider to “try some new ideas” that focus on empowering the workers “whose trust and money has been systematically stolen.”

The letter and news of a potential federal takeover of the UAW come after the union’s upper echelon has endorsed Joe Biden for president. Biden has publicly stated that, if he is elected, he will work to overturn all Right to Work laws in the country. That would force all worker victims of the UAW corruption to once again pay money to the union or else be fired. In 27 states, including Michigan where the UAW is headquartered, Right to Work laws ensure that no worker can be fired for refusing to tender dues or fees to a union hierarchy as a condition of employment.

“The revelations of greed and shamelessness that continue to arise in the UAW probe are no surprise to anyone who is familiar with the coercive privileges granted union bosses by federal law,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Though we urge Mr. Schneider to push the reforms detailed in our letter which will put the power to hold union officials accountable in workers’ hands, there is ultimately no place in federal law for provisions that force workers to pay union bosses or accept their so-called ‘representation’ to keep or get a job.”

NLRB will impound ballots in election to remove UFCW while issue is decided

Washington, DC (June 25, 2020) – In a recently issued order, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced that it will review its so-called “contract bar” doctrine, which prevents employees from exercising their right to vote an unpopular union out of their workplace for up to three years if union officials and their employer have finalized a monopoly bargaining contract.

The “contract bar” is not provided for in the text of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which the NLRB administers, but is the result of past Board decisions in favor of union bosses.

This is the latest development in a case by a Delaware-based Mountaire Farms poultry employee, Oscar Cruz Sosa, against the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 27 union. Cruz Sosa submitted a petition for a vote on whether Local 27 should be removed as monopoly bargaining agent in his workplace. The petition was signed by more than the number of workers necessary to trigger such a vote.

Cruz Sosa also filed federal unfair labor practice charges in April against the union for illegally seizing dues from his and other employees’ paychecks, as well as threatening him after he submitted the decertification petition to remove the union. He is receiving free legal representation from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

UFCW officials argued after the petition’s filing that the “contract bar” should block Cruz Sosa and his coworkers from even having an election, because the monopoly bargaining agreement between Mountaire and the union had been signed less than three years earlier. The NLRB Regional Director held that the vote should proceed because the union agreement contains an unlawful forced dues clause that mandates workers immediately pay union dues upon hiring or be fired, in violation of a statutory 30-day grace period. Despite the longstanding precedent supporting the Regional Director’s ruling, UFCW union lawyers filed a Request for Review asking the full NLRB to overrule the Regional Director.

Cruz Sosa’s National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys opposed the union’s efforts to block the vote, and argued that if the Board were to grant the union’s Request for Review it should also reconsider the entire “contract bar” policy, which has no statutory basis in the NLRA. The Foundation’s legal brief noted that the contract bar runs counter to the rights of workers under the NLRA, which explicitly include the right to vote out a union a majority of workers oppose. The brief also notes that the idea of a “contract bar” was rejected by the original NLRB when the NLRA was passed.

Late Tuesday, just hours after the voting process in the decertification election had begun, the NLRB issued its order accepting the Foundation’s argument that the entire “contract bar” doctrine should be reviewed. The order noted “that it is appropriate for the Board to undertake in this case a general review of its contract bar doctrine.”
The Board’s order also stayed the election while the Request for Review was pending, but after Foundation staff attorneys submitted a motion asking the NLRB to modify its order so the vote could proceed with the ballots impounded, the Board issued another order late Wednesday allowing the vote to go forward.

“The ‘contract bar’ has for decades allowed union officials to trap workers in a union a majority of them oppose for up to three years merely because the employer and union finalized a contract between themselves,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “We urge the NLRB to swiftly overturn this outrageous non-statutory policy, as it actively undermines the free choice of workers that is supposed to be at the center of federal labor law.”

“The very premise of the NLRB-created contract bar, that union bosses should be insulated from worker decertification efforts, is completely backwards,” added Mix. “Union officials use all types of tactics to get workers into unions but rely on government power to not let them get out.”

Just latest in chain of charges against multiple Seattle SEIU unions, all concern roadblocks to letting workers exercise workplace rights

Seattle, WA (June 17, 2020) – Pacific Building Services employee Daniel Dalison has filed federal charges against Service Employees International Union (SEIU6) Property Services NW for violating his rights by maintaining deceiving membership forms that misinform workers about their rights. He is also charging both the union and Pacific Building Services with deducting dues illegally from his paycheck, even though he has never authorized any deductions and objected to union membership and paying union fees beyond the amount that can be required as a condition of employment.

Because Washington State has not enacted Right to Work protections for its private sector employees, they can still be forced to pay fees to a union as a condition of getting or keeping a job. However, for employees who object to formal union membership, this amount is limited by the Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision to just the portion of union dues that is directly related to bargaining purposes, and cannot include union political and lobbying activities. Beck also requires that unions follow certain procedures before taking forced fees from nonmember paychecks, including providing an independent audit of the union’s expenses.

Dalison filed his charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys. The charges state he was hired by Pacific Building Services in May 2020 and was given an information packet from SEIU6 the same month.

The charge states that SEIU6’s welcome packet incorrectly informed Dalison that he couldn’t exercise his Beck right to object to full union dues outside the 31-day window after his hire date. On top of that, Dalison’s charge explains that the membership form included in the packet is an illegal “dual purpose” form, which, if signed, triggers automatic dues seizures from an employee’s paycheck despite “actually say[ing] nothing about dues authorization.” Federal law provides that employers cannot deduct union dues or fees directly from employees’ paychecks unless they have affirmative consent from them, regardless of their membership status.

After receiving the information packet, Dalison sent the union letters “stating that he did not want union membership” and wished only to pay the required fees to keep his job. He also asked the union to furnish an independent audit of its expenses and a copy of the monopoly bargaining contract between it and Pacific Building Services. The charge says that the union responded with a letter claiming “he must have misunderstood his options” and that its records showed he was a member and must pay full dues.

Despite never assenting to union membership and submitting objection letters, Dalison’s charge reports that full dues were deducted from his paycheck on June 8, 2020. His charge contends that this violates his right under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) “to refrain from any or all” union activities. His charge also seeks an injunction under Section 10(j) of the NLRA to force the SEIU and employer to immediately stop the activities described in the charges while the NLRB investigates.

Earlier this year Dalison charged officials of SEIU 1199NW for violating employee rights at Swedish Medical Center, where he has also worked. Those charges related that, in addition to not allowing workers to exercise their Beck rights, SEIU 1199NW bosses ordered workers to provide photo identification any time they asked to see their own paperwork regarding membership and dues check off authorizations. Those charges are still pending at NLRB Region 19.

“Within just a few months, Seattle SEIU bosses have proved repeatedly that they will violate the rights of the workers they claim to represent just to illegally siphon dues from employee paychecks,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “NLRB Region 19, which is now knee-deep in pending employee charges revealing the brazen tactics of coercion engaged in by these union bosses, must immediately seek an injunction to protect workers from these egregious schemes.”

Teamsters Local 175 bosses illegally cut deal in which union stewards got pay raise unavailable to other workers

Fairmont, WV (June 16, 2020) – A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office based in Pittsburgh issued a complaint against Teamsters Local 175 for discriminating against employees by giving a pay increase only to union stewards. NLRB Region 6’s complaint was issued in response to unfair labor practice charges from a former employee at Genesis HealthCare Tygart Center in Fairmont, WV. The former nursing assistant is receiving free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

This new NLRB Region 6 complaint comes while an appeal to an imposed settlement in a linked case against the Tygart Center on the grounds that it fails to compensate the employees who were denied the additional pay per hour given to union stewards is pending.

According to this new complaint from NLRB Region 6 against Local 175, Donna Harper and her coworkers signed Teamsters membership and dues checkoff authorization forms that contained confusing language and failed to “clearly inform signers that they are permitted to revoke dues deduction authorization” when a union bargaining contract expires or whenever there is no such contract in effect.

Harper submitted a letter to the Teamsters union exercising her right to end her membership and cease union dues deductions in February 2019. Teamsters officials rejected this request, telling Harper that her submission was “untimely” and would need to be sent again at a later date to be accepted. Though Harper had asked the union for the time frame when she could tender her request to end membership and cut off dues, Teamsters officials never informed her of this, according to the complaint. The complaint says that Teamsters officials also did not timely reply to a second request Harper sent in March of 2019.

The union contract imposed by the Teamsters and Tygart Center contained a clause which read that employees who were union stewards as of July 2017 would “receive twenty-five cents ($0.25) per hour above their classified rate.” The complaint contends that Teamsters officials violated employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) through the pay discrimination, the treatment of Ms. Harper’s resignation and revocation, and the confusing checkoff language.

The complaint comes after the West Virginia Supreme Court unanimously upheld the state’s Right to Work protections, which ensure that no private or public sector worker can be forced to join or pay dues or fees to a union as a condition of employment. The law was the subject of a years-long legal attack by West Virginia union lawyers, including the West Virginia AFL-CIO. Foundation staff attorneys submitted ten legal briefs defending the law, including one for Harper.

“Teamsters union bosses, who misinformed Ms. Harper and her coworkers and were then caught red-handed discriminating against those in her workplace who were not union stewards, serve as just one more example of why Right to Work protections are necessary to safeguard employee rights in the Mountain State,” commented National Right to Work President Mark Mix. “Although the discrimination Ms. Harper charged Teamsters honchos with was blatantly illegal long before West Virginia enacted Right to Work, requiring union bosses to use persuasion and not coercion to win worker support will make them think twice before trying to enforce an illegal scheme under the radar.”

Mix added: “While the West Virginia Supreme Court was right in upholding the Right to Work law, it will take vigorous enforcement to ensure that rank-and-file employees like Ms. Harper are not subjected to these kinds of coercive tactics.”

Appeal asks PERB to eliminate standard which lets union bosses use unsubstantiated allegations to block employee votes

San Diego, CA (June 10, 2020) – Educators at Gompers Preparatory Academy (GPA) charter school are appealing a decision by a California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) regional attorney, which let San Diego Education Association (SDEA) union bosses block the educators’ right to vote on whether the union should remain at the school. The educators, who submitted a valid petition to initiate a vote to remove the union, are led by chemistry teacher Dr. Kristie Chiscano. Dr. Chiscano and her fellow educators are receiving free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

The appeal follows SDEA union officials’ so-called filing of “blocking charges” against the charter school. The union charges allege that school leadership committed unfair labor practices, and were accepted by the PERB administrator as a reason to stop the election to remove the union. This happened despite the union not alleging or proving any wrongdoing on the educators’ part, and despite the PERB never holding a hearing into whether the charges had any merit. The appeal seeks to overturn PERB Regulation 32752, which allows union bosses to “plead unproven ‘facts’ that a Board agent or attorney must accept as true” which “will almost always guarantee a secret-ballot election will be stayed (stopped).”

SDEA union officials were installed at the school in January 2019 after conducting a controversial “card check” union drive, bypassing the more reliable method of a secret-ballot election whether to certify a union as the monopoly representative of all educators in the school. Since the school’s unionization, no monopoly bargaining contract has been approved and educators and parents have accused union agents of divisive activity, including supporting anti-charter school legislation.

Dr. Chiscano began circulating the decertification petition in October 2019. She soon obtained the signatures of well over the number of her fellow educators necessary to trigger a PERB-supervised secret-ballot vote to remove the union. However, the appeal notes, SDEA union officials “filed a strategically-timed unfair practice charge against GPA in December 2019” to block the educators from exercising their right to vote on whether to remove the union. Despite the educators’ Foundation-provided attorneys submitting a brief explaining why SDEA bosses’ unsubstantiated allegations had nothing to do with the employees’ desire to vote, the PERB attorney stayed the election in May 2020.

The appeal asks that the PERB alter the standard used to process employee petitions for a decertification election because the current practice “is the antithesis of employee free choice” in that it grants union bosses the privilege to “block a secret-ballot election based on mere strategic pleading in an unproven unfair practice charge.”

Also pointed out is that, after a “blocking charge” is filed, “it becomes the employees’ and employer’s burden to show why the unproven allegations in the unfair practice charge would not affect the election process.”

The appeal proposes that the PERB adopt a new standard that requires union officials who file “blocking charges” to, during a hearing, prove a “causal nexus” between the unfair employer conduct they allege and “any effect on employees that would prevent them from making a free choice in a secret-ballot election.” Dr. Chiscano’s case, the appeal says, should be reconsidered under that standard.

“Dr. Chiscano and her coworkers just want to be able to exercise their right to vote, free of coercion, on whether or not SDEA union bosses deserve to maintain power at their school,” observed National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Instead of letting them vote, power-hungry SDEA union bosses who, ironically, oppose charter schools like GPA, have exploited the PERB’s anti-worker choice standards to hold these educators captive under their so-called ‘representation’ for more than 17 months.”

Mix added: “The PERB should immediately reform its standards to stop allowing union officials to use totally unproven allegations to block employees’ right to free themselves of an unwanted union.”