Restaurant Union Bosses Served Federal Charges

Unite Here union bosses demand servers pay over $5,700 or be fired

Chicago, IL (October 2, 2012) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, two local Riva Restaurant servers have filed federal charges against a local union for violating their rights and demanding that they pay thousands of dollars in back union dues or be fired.

Michael Pastrick and Jaclyn McAllister filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the Unite Here Local 1 union, based in Chicago.

Click here to read the full release.

Chicago, IL (October 2, 2012) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, two local Riva Restaurant servers have filed federal charges against a local union for violating their rights and demanding that they pay thousands of dollars in back union dues or be fired.

Michael Pastrick and Jaclyn McAllister filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the Unite Here Local 1 union, based in Chicago.

Unite Here Local 1 union officials enjoy monopoly bargaining powers over the workplace. As a result, employees can be forced to pay union dues and fees as a condition of employment because Illinois is not a Right to Work state. However, employees cannot be legally compelled to join a union against their will and cannot be compelled to pay union dues used for union politics and member-only events.

Local 1 union officials never informed the workers that they must pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment or of their rights to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership as upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Foundation-won Communications Workers v. Beck case.

Instead, in August 2012, Unite Here Local 1 union officials demanded that the workers pay full union dues dating back to 2006, a total of over $5,700.

Unite Here union officials coerced Pastrick and McAllister with the threat of job termination into signing an illegal “payment plan and waiver” of their rights. The union officials also charged an additional 23 percent “service fee” for paying the dues with a credit card.

“Apparently, intimidation and coercion are today’s special for Unite Here Local 1 union officials,” said Patrick Semmens, Vice President for Public Information of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Illinois desperately needs a Right to Work law making union membership and dues-payment completely voluntary to prevent this type of union boss abuse in the future.”

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

Workers Challenge Obama Labor Board Recess Appointments in Federal Appeals Court

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

Washington, DC (October 1, 2012) – National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed a brief in yet another legal battle over President Barack Obama’s purported “recess appointments” to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Foundation attorneys filed the amicus curiae brief jointly with the Landmark Legal Foundation on Wednesday in the case Noel Canning v. NLRB, pending now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The brief was filed for four workers who are represented by their Foundation attorneys in cases pending before the NLRB.

Click here to read the full release.

Washington, DC (October 1, 2012) – National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed a brief in yet another legal battle over President Barack Obama’s purported “recess appointments” to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Foundation attorneys filed the amicus curiae brief jointly with the Landmark Legal Foundation on Wednesday in the case Noel Canning v. NLRB, pending now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The brief was filed for four workers who are represented by their Foundation attorneys in cases pending before the NLRB.

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 may help set the standard for all further challenges

Foundation staff attorneys argue in their briefs in both cases 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 January 3, 2012 necessary 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.”

U.S. Supreme Court Fails to Correct Dangerous Union Exemption from State Identity Theft Laws

Resort workers get caught in union membership Twilight Zone

Washington, DC (October 1, 2012) – Today, the U. S. Supreme Court denied a petition to hear a case brought by North Carolina-based AT&T (NYSE: T) employees asking the Court to review two state court decisions regarding a state identity theft law and federal preemption.

The workers appealed the case to the Supreme Court with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

In the fall of 2007, Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 3602 union president John Glenn maliciously posted the names and social security numbers of 33 AT&T employees on a publicly accessible bulletin board at the company’s facility in Burlington, N.C.

All the employees whose names and personal information were posted in a hallway close to the building entrance, accessible to the public, had exercised their freedom under the state’s Right to Work law to resign from CWA union membership and cease paying union dues.

Click here to read the full release.

Washington, DC (October 1, 2012) – Today, the U. S. Supreme Court denied a petition to hear a case brought by North Carolina-based AT&T (NYSE: T) employees asking the Court to review two state court decisions regarding a state identity theft law and federal preemption.

The workers appealed the case to the Supreme Court with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

In the fall of 2007, Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 3602 union president John Glenn maliciously posted the names and social security numbers of 33 AT&T employees on a publicly accessible bulletin board at the company’s facility in Burlington, N.C.

All the employees whose names and personal information were posted in a hallway close to the building entrance, accessible to the public, had exercised their freedom under the state’s Right to Work law to resign from CWA union membership and cease paying union dues.

In North Carolina, it is a serious offense for a business or nonprofit organization to publicly reveal someone’s name in combination with his or her social security number. Per the North Carolina Identity Theft Protection Act (ITPA), exposing any person to identity theft in this way carries a fine of up to $5,000 per violation.

In June 2008, AT&T employee Jason Fisher and 15 other employees, represented by Foundation attorneys, filed a lawsuit against Local 3602 and its parent unions in state court.

In an unprecedented decision, both the state trial court and the state court of appeals exempted union bosses from North Carolina’s identity theft law. Both courts ruled that the National Labor Relations Act preempts the ITPA. Consequently, union bosses may not be punished by state authorities for exposing the workers’ private information to the public.

“With today’s announcement, the U.S. Supreme Court has left intact a new type of ugly union boss retaliation, allowing union officials to target workers for identity theft even when state law clearly makes such retaliation illegal,” said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. “The Court’s decision not to correct this injustice makes a mockery of state and federal labor laws, which purport to ‘protect’ workers but really protects union boss intimidation, and now will be used to escape from state laws protecting workers’ identities across the country.”

Monday, a National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney argued for three Wisconsin public employees who are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (located in Chicago) to uphold all of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s public-sector unionism reform measures, known as "Act 10."

The case is on appeal after a federal circuit court judge in Wisconsin struck down Wisconsin’s new union recertification requirements and ban on the use of taxpayer funded-payroll systems to collect union dues from general employees’ paychecks, and excluded the three workers from participating fully in the case.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, 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 a motion to intervene in the lower court. When their motion to intervene was denied, the employees appealed and were given a portion of the argument time in Monday’s appeals court argument.

The three workers are asking the appellate court to uphold the law as a whole as constitutional especially the law’s Right to Work protections — relying on Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court precedents in which the Court held that union bosses have no constitutional right to collect fees from nonmembers and that unions have no constitutional right to use government resources to deduct dues from workers’ paychecks.

Mickey Mouse Union Faces Federal Charges for Illegally Threatening Workers’ Jobs

Resort workers get caught in union membership Twilight Zone

Anaheim, CA (September 25, 2012) – With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, two Disneyland Resort Grand California Hotel employees have filed federal charges against a local union for violating their rights.

Jose Luis Sanchez and Liz Abdul-Nour filed federal charges against the UNITE HERE Local 11 union with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Los Angeles.

Click here to read the full release.

Anaheim, CA (September 25, 2012) – With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, two Disneyland Resort Grand California Hotel employees have filed federal charges against a local union for violating their rights.

Jose Luis Sanchez and Liz Abdul-Nour filed federal charges against the UNITE HERE Local 11 union with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Los Angeles.

UNITE HERE union officials never notified Sanchez, Abdul-Nour, and other Disneyland Resort hotel workers of their right to refrain from formal union membership and object to paying full union dues. Because California lacks a Right to Work law, workers can be compelled to pay union fees as a condition of employment. However, Supreme Court precedent guarantees that employees have the right to refrain from union membership and the right to opt out of paying for union activities unrelated to workplace bargaining, such as members-only events and political lobbying.

Additionally, union officials refuse to follow federal disclosure requirements and provide the workers with an independently-audited financial breakdown of all forced-dues union expenditures and the opportunity to challenge the amount of forced union fees before an impartial decision maker.

Moreover, under the union’s policy, workers who exercise their right to refrain from formal union membership are automatically forced back into paying full union dues every year and charged a re-initiation fee unless they annually object. Foundation staff attorneys scored a legal victory in August 2010 for workers who were subjected to a similar burdensome Machinist union boss policy requiring employees to annually renew their objection to supporting union politics and other non-bargaining expenses or be converted back to paying full union dues.

Union officials also illegally threatened nonmembers that if they do not join the union, the union brass will not fairly represent them.

“These workers may feel like they are in the Twilight Zone: They exercise their right to refrain from UNITE HERE union membership, then they wake up and are forced into paying full union dues again,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Union bosses are illegally trapping workers into paying union dues and intimidating employees who have the temerity to not want to subsidize the union bosses’ political agenda. This case is yet another example of how California desperately needs a Right to Work law, which would make union membership and dues payments strictly voluntary.”

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

Teacher Files State Complaints After Union Bosses Violate Act 10, U.S. Constitution

Case shows why Act 10 is needed to protect state workers

Madison, WI (September 21, 2012) – A former Greenwood, Wisconsin teacher has filed complaints against a local teacher union for illegally refusing to honor her right under the state law commonly referred to as “Act 10” to refrain from union dues payments, and for refusing to follow constitutional disclosure requirements.

Amy Anaya filed the complaint with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

Anaya was a School District of Greenwood teacher for a year, beginning in August 2011, after Act 10 became effective. In September 2011, Greenwood Education Association (GEA) union officials approached Anaya and illegally told her that she “had to” sign the union’s membership form. Anaya informed them that she had no desire to become a member of the union.

Click here to read the full release.