Eight Chattanooga Volkswagen Workers File Federal Charges Challenging UAW Card Check Scheme

Demand for installing UAW union at VW based on cards collected through “unlawful means including misrepresentations, coercion, threats, and promises”

Chattanooga, TN (September 25, 2013) – Today, eight Chattanooga, Tennessee, Volkswagen AG (VOW.DE) workers filed federal charges against the United Auto Workers (UAW) union for misleading and coercing them and other workers to forfeit their rights in what is now a “card check” unionization drive by the UAW.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, the eight workers filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Atlanta.

After UAW union officials claimed to possess signature cards from a majority of workers, UAW union president Bob King demanded VW deny workers a secret ballot vote on unionization and instead unionize all workers on the basis of the unreliable and abuse-prone card check process.

Click here to read the full release.

Chattanooga, TN (September 25, 2013) – Today, eight Chattanooga, Tennessee, Volkswagen AG (VOW.DE) workers filed federal charges against the United Auto Workers (UAW) union for misleading and coercing them and other workers to forfeit their rights in what is now a “card check” unionization drive by the UAW.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, the eight workers filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Atlanta.

After UAW union officials claimed to possess signature cards from a majority of workers, UAW union president Bob King demanded VW deny workers a secret ballot vote on unionization and instead unionize all workers on the basis of the unreliable and abuse-prone card check process.

The charges state that VW workers were told by UAW union organizers that a signature on the card was to call for a secret ballot unionization election. They also allege other improprieties in the card check process, including using cards that were signed too long ago to be legally valid.

After recent media reports suggested that workers were misled or bribed into signing union cards, workers who wanted to lawfully revoke their signatures were told by union officials that they had to physically appear at the union office if they wanted their cards returned to them.

“Despite making it so easy to sign union ‘cards’ at the workplace, UAW union officials are now demanding workers to go to the union office to exercise their right to reclaim their cards,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “This case underscores how card check unionization schemes make it ‘easy to check in, but impossible to check out.'”

The charges ask the NLRB to order UAW union officials to cease and desist from demanding recognition based upon the tainted cards.

The workers contacted the Foundation for free legal assistance after learning about the Foundation’s special legal notice to Volkswagen Chattanooga employees being subjected to the UAW card check drive. The notice can be found online here: www.nrtw.org/vw-chattanooga

Other VW employees who were subjected to or have knowledge of cards being collected through abuse, fraud, bribes, or other illicit means are encouraged to contact the Foundation. Workers can call 1-800-336-3600 or visit www.nrtw.org to request legal assistance.

Worker Files Brief in Supreme Court Case Challenging Backroom Union Organizing Deal

Right to Work legal challenge could determine if companies are allowed to hand over sensitive employee information to aggressive union organizers

Washington, DC (September 23, 2013) – National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed a brief at the United States Supreme Court late Friday for a Florida casino worker challenging a much used union organizing scheme. The case, Mulhall v. UNITE HERE, could determine whether union organizers can receive workers’ personal information and other valuable organizing tools in exchange for concessions at employees’ expense.

In 2004, UNITE HERE Local 355 and Mardi Gras Gaming entered into an agreement in which union officials promised to devote over one hundred thousand dollars to help pass a gambling ballot initiative and guaranteed not to picket, boycott, or strike against Mardi Gras facilities.

In return, Mardi Gras agreed to give union operatives workers’ personal contact information (including home addresses), grant them access to company facilities during a coercive ‘card check’ organizing campaign, refrain from informing workers about the impact of unionization, and refrain from requesting a federally-supervised secret ballot election to determine whether employees unionized.

Click here to read the full release.

Washington, DC (September 23, 2013) – National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed a brief at the United States Supreme Court late Friday for a Florida casino worker challenging a much used union organizing scheme. The case, Mulhall v. UNITE HERE, could determine whether union organizers can receive workers’ personal information and other valuable organizing tools in exchange for concessions at employees’ expense.

In 2004, UNITE HERE Local 355 and Mardi Gras Gaming entered into an agreement in which union officials promised to devote over one hundred thousand dollars to help pass a gambling ballot initiative and guaranteed not to picket, boycott, or strike against Mardi Gras facilities.

In return, Mardi Gras agreed to give union operatives workers’ personal contact information (including home addresses), grant them access to company facilities during a coercive ‘card check’ organizing campaign, refrain from informing workers about the impact of unionization, and refrain from requesting a federally-supervised secret ballot election to determine whether employees unionized.

With the help of Foundation staff attorneys, Mardi Gras employee Martin Mulhall filed a lawsuit in 2008 challenging the organizing pact. Under the Labor Management Relations Act, employers are prohibited from handing over “any money or other thing of value” to union organizers, a provision that is supposed to prevent union officials from selling out workers’ rights in exchange for corporate support of unionization. Mulhall argues that the company’s assistance with organizing was of substantial monetary value because it made UNITE HERE’s organizing drive easier and less expensive.

Mulhall won a significant victory in 2012, when the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the company’s organizing assistance could constitute “a thing of value.” UNITE HERE lawyers quickly appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, prompting Foundation attorneys to file a cross-petition asking the Court to review certain aspects of the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling.

Foundation attorneys believe that the Eleventh Circuit’s decision was too narrowly tailored to always prevent companies from aiding union organizers with valuable assistance. The Supreme Court will now revisit whether the company’s organizing assistance constitutes “a thing of value.

“We hope the Supreme Court will expand upon the Eleventh Circuit’s landmark ruling and ensure that union organizers can’t cut backroom deals that harm the very people they claim they want to represent,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Companies shouldn’t be allowed to turn over employees’ personal information to unscrupulous Big Labor organizers as a negotiating tactic.”

The Court will hear the case on November 13.

Springfield, VA (September 13, 2013) – Recent media reports suggest that United Auto Workers (UAW) union officials are pushing Volkswagen AG (VOW.DE) to eliminate a secret ballot vote on unionization and instead unionize all workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee on the basis of an unreliable and abuse-prone “card check” process.

After UAW union officials claimed to receive a majority of workers signing union “cards,” UAW union president Bob King told Reuters yesterday that the VW employees should be put under union monopoly control through the card check, and that they should not vote in private because, he claimed, such a secret ballot vote would be “divisive.”

However, the National Right to Work Foundation has received a number of calls from workers at the plant who were told by UAW union organizers that a signature on the card was to call for a secret ballot unionization election.

Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, issued the following statement in response to King’s statement to Reuters:

“Despite their promises, UAW union officials are now trying to deny workers a secret ballot election to determine whether to unionize. Instead, they are pressuring Volkswagen to recognize them as the workers’ monopoly bargaining representative.

“Any worker who believes they may have been misled, pressured, or coerced into signing a union ‘card’ should contact the National Right to Work Foundation at 1-800-336-3600 or the Foundation’s website at www.nrtw.org immediately. It is not too late for workers to protect their legal rights.”

Springfield, VA (September 11, 2013) – The National Right to Work Foundation has received numerous inquiries from concerned Indiana workers after a Lake County judge invalidated the state’s recently enacted Right to Work law.

Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation, released the following statement about the decision and the current status of Indiana’s Right to Work law:

“Despite the Lake County court judge’s ruling, the constitutionality of Right to Work laws has long been a settled question. No worker should ever be forced to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys plan to file an amicus brief for workers they represent in support of Indiana’s Right to Work law when the case is considered on appeal at the Indiana Supreme Court.

“In the meantime, Indiana’s popular Right to Work law remains in effect while the case is pending on appeal. As such, workers will continue to have the choice to refrain from union membership and dues payments.

“Workers who have questions about their rights or about Indiana’s Right to Work law should contact the National Right to Work Foundation at 1-800-336-3600 or via email to legal@nrtw.org.”

Right to Work Foundation Announces New Addition to Legal Team

Regent-trained attorney dedicated to the cause of individual liberty for America’s workers

Washington, DC (September 20, 2013) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has hired Amanda Freeman of Woodbridge, Virginia as an addition to its cutting-edge legal team.

Freeman is a member of the Virginia State Bar and 2009 graduate of the Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

“Amanda brings a real commitment to defending and advancing individual liberty to the Foundation,” said Ray LaJeunesse, vice president and legal director of the National Right to Work Foundation.

Click here to read the full release.

Washington, DC (September 20, 2013) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has hired Amanda Freeman of Woodbridge, Virginia as an addition to its cutting-edge legal team.

Freeman is a member of the Virginia State Bar and 2009 graduate of the Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

“Amanda brings a real commitment to defending and advancing individual liberty to the Foundation,” said Ray LaJeunesse, vice president and legal director of the National Right to Work Foundation.

“She will assist the Foundation’s legal staff in helping conscientious workers refrain from paying for Big Labor’s political agenda, enforcing individual employees’ rights against the abuses of compulsory unionism, and establishing new precedents increasing workplace freedom.”

As the newest of the Foundation’s 17 staff attorneys, Freeman will help build on the Foundation’s litigation record for union-abused workers that includes 16 cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, one of which will be argued in November. Currently, National Right to Work Foundation attorneys represent thousands of workers in nearly 200 active cases nationwide.

Before joining the Foundation, Freeman served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Glen A. Huff of the Virginia Court of Appeals and was previously a judicial clerk for the Honorable Robert J. Humphreys of the Virginia Court of Appeals. She was also an intern for Lentz, Stepanovich & Bergethon, PLC, in Virginia Beach and was a paralegal at Mauck & Baker, LLC, in Chicago, Illinois.

While at Regent, Freeman was managing editor of the school’s Law Review and also studied abroad in Strasbourg, France. She holds a bachelors degree in Administrative Management with a minor in Political Science from Bob Jones University, where she graduated cum laude in 2005.

Federal Appeals Court Rules to Halt Implementation of Minnesota’s Childcare Unionization Scheme

Childcare providers fight dictate to push them into forced union dues ranks

Minneapolis, MN (September 19, 2013) – Today, a federal appeals court ruled to delay implementation of Minnesota’s new law that seeks to forcibly unionize the state’s home-based childcare providers.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Jennifer Parrish from Rochester and 11 other providers from around the state filed an appeal last month after the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota dismissed their lawsuit on the grounds that it was filed too soon.

Parrish and other providers seek to halt implementation of a recently-passed law intended to designate American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) officials as the monopoly political representative of thousands of providers in the state, who are either owners of childcare businesses or family members who take care of related children.

Patrick Semmens, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation, issued the following statement on the appeals court ruling:

“Minnesota’s childcare providers are no longer under imminent threat to be forcibly unionized in a union they want nothing to do with.

“The court ruled to delay implementation of the law pending the outcome of a National Right to Work Foundation-led challenge pending at the U.S. Supreme Court of a similar law passed in Illinois.”

Click here to read the full release.

Minneapolis, MN (September 19, 2013) – Today, a federal appeals court ruled to delay implementation of Minnesota’s new law that seeks to forcibly unionize the state’s home-based childcare providers.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Jennifer Parrish from Rochester and 11 other providers from around the state filed an appeal last month after the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota dismissed their lawsuit on the grounds that it was filed too soon.

Parrish and other providers seek to halt implementation of a recently-passed law intended to designate American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) officials as the monopoly political representative of thousands of providers in the state, who are either owners of childcare businesses or family members who take care of related children.

Patrick Semmens, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation, issued the following statement on the appeals court ruling:

“Minnesota’s childcare providers are no longer under imminent threat to be forcibly unionized in a union they want nothing to do with.

“The court ruled to delay implementation of the law pending the outcome of a National Right to Work Foundation-led challenge pending at the U.S. Supreme Court of a similar law passed in Illinois.”

Home-based childcare and personal care providers have challenged similar forced-unionization-by-government-fiat schemes in several states across the country. Foundation attorneys argue that such schemes violate the providers’ First Amendment right to choose with whom they associate to petition the government.