**Seattle, WA (May 4, 2006)** – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Safeway employee filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union for maintaining a discriminatory policy intended to deter workers in King and Kitsat counties from exercising their religious freedoms.

Daniel Gautschi, manager in a Safeway meat department, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington after union officials set forth conditions that force him to affiliate with – and pay additional money to – a union he finds morally offensive if he should ever have an employment grievance.

UFCW Local 81 union officials allowed the forwarding of Gautschi’s forced union dues (paid as a condition of employment) to a charity – an accommodation previously won by Foundation attorneys under federal law. However, they continue to maintain an illegal scheme intended to deter employees from exercising their right to assert religious objections in the first place. The scheme forces only employees who file religious objections to pay the union all costs associated with use of grievance procedures under the bargaining agreement – even though union officials tightly control the process and employees are totally barred from filing grievances on their own.

As a devout Christian, Gautschi believes that supporting the UFCW union violates his sincerely held religious beliefs due to the union hierarchy’s support for special rights for homosexuals.

On October 17, 2005, Gautschi filed charges (also with free legal aid from Foundation attorneys) with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC issued a letter to Gautschi dated March 8 advising him he has the right to institute a civil action in federal court under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

“Union officials want employees of faith to shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Employees should not be forced to choose between honoring their faith and exercising their workplace rights.”

Under Title VII, union officials may not force any employee to financially support a union if doing so violates the employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs. To avoid the conflict between an employee’s faith and a requirement to pay fees to a union he or she believes to be immoral, the law requires union officials to attempt to accommodate the employee – most often by designating a mutually acceptable charity to accept the funds.

Gautschi’s lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction barring the UFCW union from discriminating against him on the basis of religion, as well as an order that the union inform all employees under the monopoly bargaining agreement that those with religious objections need not additionally reimburse the union for any costs associated with grievance processing. Union officials demanded and received total monopoly control over the grievance process. Nevertheless, they seek to force religious objectors – but not others covered by the monopoly bargaining agreement – to pay large sums of money to the union if they have a grievance in the workplace.

**Decatur, AL (May 1, 2006)** – With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, eight Boeing employees have filed federal charges against the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union for illegal retaliatory fines levied against them for honoring their commitments to their employer and refusing to walk off the job during a union-ordered strike.

The employees, led by Larry Bonner, filed the federal unfair labor practice charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against IAM union Local Lodge 44. The nonunion workers allege that IAM union officials illegally fined them $4,500 each for continuing to work during a union-mandated strike that lasted from November 2, 2005 to February 1, 2006.

“IAM union officials’ policy of bullying employees who do not toe the union line cannot continue with impunity,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “Union officials’ thuggish tactics demonstrate how the union hierarchy‘s interests are at odds with those of the very employees they claim to represent.”

The Boeing employees cannot be lawfully fined because they resigned their union memberships (and thus were no longer subject to internal union rules) before returning to work – their right under the Foundation-supported Patternmakers v. NLRB U.S. Supreme Court decision. In Patternmakers, the High Court ruled workers may resign their full, formal union membership immediately, at any time, and without restrictions.

Once an employee becomes a nonmember, union officials then have no legal basis for enforcing internal union “discipline” against them.

Additionally, IAM union officials’ actions run contrary to Alabama’s highly-popular Right to Work law – on the books since 1953 – which prevents workers from being forced to join or pay dues to an unwanted union as a condition of employment.

The NLRB will now investigate the workers’ charges and decide whether to issue a formal complaint and prosecute the IAM union.

**Charlotte, NC (April 27, 2006)** – The Regional Director for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed a formal complaint and agreed to prosecute Freightliner LLC for federal unfair labor practices after an autoworker suffered retaliation for questioning a pattern of special treatment given to United Auto Workers (UAW) union officials by the company.

Kristi Jones, a Freightliner employee at the company’s Gastonia facility, sought free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation to file unfair labor practice charges in early April after she was suspended, demoted, threatened, and stripped of her leadership position.

Company officials retaliated against Jones in response to an email she sent in December 2005 that simply questioned whether a new work rule applied to UAW union officials as well as nonunion workers. The rule specified that workers on the facility floor must wear safety glasses with clear lenses. Jones sought a clarification of how the new rule would be enforced due to an ongoing pattern of special treatment for union officials – including the exemptions of union stewards from ten-minute team “huddle meetings” and from a requirement that workers formally sign in when working overtime.

NLRB prosecutors agreed with Jones’ charges in finding that Freightliner maintained a work environment where even implicit criticism of union officials was met with harsh and unlawful disciplinary action.

Aside from violating the National Labor Relations Act, such actions also run contrary to the spirit of North Carolina’s highly popular Right to Work law – on the books since 1947 – which prohibits forcing workers to join or pay dues to a union as a job condition.

“UAW officials have enlisted Freightliner to do their dirty work by retaliating against employees that refuse to toe the union line,” said Stefan Gleason, National Right to Work Foundation Vice President. “The bullying of employees to support a corrupt union cannot continue unpunished.”

The formal complaint comes on the heels of a class-action federal racketeering lawsuit filed by employees in U.S. District Court in January seeking significant damages after Freightliner, a Daimler/Chrysler subsidiary, and UAW union officials had already been found to be in illegal collusion by NLRB investigators.

Jones and four other autoworkers from three major facilities in North Carolina, including the Gastonia facility, brought the lawsuit against the UAW union and Freightliner, also with free legal aid from Foundation attorneys. That complaint outlines a secret quid pro quo arrangement between Freightliner and the UAW in which union officials agreed in advance to significant concessions at the expense of Freightliner’s workers at its nonunion facilities in the state in exchange for valuable company assistance in organizing those workers.

The NLRB has scheduled a hearing before an administrative law judge on June 5 to prosecute Freightliner and remedy the allegations set forth in the complaint.

**Toledo, OH (April 21, 2006)** – With the assistance of National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, four nurses from the St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo have filed federal charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 8 Director in Cleveland against the United Auto Workers (UAW) union and its Toledo Local 12 for violating their rights.

The charges detail how UAW union officials have used a compulsory unionism clause in their contract with the medical center to threaten to have nurses fired, despite failing to inform the employees of their right to refrain from formal union membership and the right to pay a reduced fee in lieu of dues. Under the Foundation-won United States Supreme Court decision Communications Workers v. Beck, union officials must inform workers of their right to remain nonmembers or resign from formal union membership and to refrain from paying for activities unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activities.

In addition to their “pay-up-or-be-fired” threats, union officials have also recently begun demanding forced union dues from per diem nurses without informing them of their rights.

The medical professionals also charge automotive union officials with misleading nurses into filling out UAW membership cards that “irrevocably” designate the UAW as their exclusive representative in all employment matters, flouting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Foundation-supported case of Pattern Makers v. National Labor Relations Board, which affirmed the right of private sector employees to resign their formal union membership at any time. The union cards also require the employee to pledge “true and faithful Allegiance to the International (UAW) Union.”

Frustrated by their treatment at the hands of union officials, a group of nurses have created a website called “Nurses For A Union Free St. Vincents” (www.NursesKnowTheTruth.bravehost.com) with the goal of ridding their medical center of the unwanted automotive union. According to federal labor law, if 30 percent of the nurses in the autoworkers union collective bargaining unit sign the decertification petition, the NLRB will hold an election where the nurses can vote the union out. However, if a majority of the nurses sign the petition the hospital can voluntarily drop its recognition of the union.

“UAW union officials have shown their willingness to break any law in their never-ending mission to corral more St. Vincent nurses into paying forced union dues,” said Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason. “Given such disregard for the rights of the very rank-and-file employees that UAW officials claim to represent, it comes as no surprise that many nurses are leading an effort to show them the door.”

**Visalia, CA (April 21, 2006)** – California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) prosecutors have issued a formal complaint against the United Farm Workers (UFW) union for misrepresentations, illegal threats, and unlawful dues demands against California Mushroom employees.
The complaint stems from unfair labor practice charges brought by a pair of California Mushroom (formerly PictSweet Mushroom Farms) workers in early March 2004 alleging that UFW union officials unlawfully demanded and/or collected full union dues from their paychecks, and threatened dissenting workers with a loss of health benefits if they refused to sign dues check-off authorization cards.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Guillermo Virgen and Gerardo Mendoza filed the class-action charges on behalf of roughly 400 workers employed by California Mushroom. Aside from unlawful dues collections and threats, the union hierarchy also failed to inform thousands of laborers statewide that they have the right to certain procedural protections to assure that their forced union dues do not finance activities unrelated to collective bargaining.

In accordance with the formal complaint received this week, the ALRB is demanding that UFW union officials inform California Mushroom employees of their right to refrain from paying full union dues, to provide the workers with an audit of the union’s books, and to establish and provide procedures by which the employees can challenge the amount of forced dues the union deducts from their paychecks.

“This ruling stalls UFW union officials’ all-out offensive on California agricultural employees’ rights,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The union hierarchy’s repeated refusal to respect the workers’ basic freedoms shows a clear disdain, not only for the employees that they claim to represent, but also for the rule of law.”

The ALRB formal complaint states that UFW union officials intentionally misled workers by claiming all workers in the bargaining unit were required to pay full union dues as a condition of employment. The Board also found that UFW union officials unlawfully failed to inform employees of their rights to object to paying for non-collective bargaining activities, such as politics, and the right to challenge the union’s fee calculations before an impartial decision-maker.

Additionally, union officials demanded that workers sign dues check-off cards authorizing the automatic deduction of full union dues from their paychecks to keep their jobs. UFW officials then threatened workers with firings and loss of benefits if they failed to pay full dues and sign payroll deduction authorization cards. The actions of UFW union officials not only violated the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, but also unlawfully infringed on constitutional rights recognized in several Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

**Cape Canaveral, FL (April 18, 2006)** – Nine Boeing employees have filed a wave of federal unfair labor practice charges against the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union for unlawful threats of fines for refusing to walk off the job during a union-ordered strike. Union officials also unlawfully failed to inform the launch complex workers of their right to refrain from formal union membership.

The charges, filed at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with the assistance of National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, allege that IAM union officials illegally told the employees they had to formally join the union as a condition of employment. Additionally, the charges detail that the union is currently attempting to discipline the employees with unlawful fines for continuing to work during a strike that lasted from November 2005 to February 2006. Workers at the facility report that fines from union officials appear imminent, though the amount remains undisclosed.

“IAM union officials’ policy of bullying dissenting employees cannot go unpunished,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Union officials’ thuggish tactics demonstrate how the union hierarchy’s interests are at odds with those of the very employees they claim to represent.”

The actions of IAM union officials violate workers’ rights recognized under the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court Communications Workers v. Beck decision. Under Beck and subsequent NLRB rulings, union officials must specifically inform employees of their right to refrain from formal, full dues-paying union membership, and of their right to pay a reduced fee to cover only the union’s collective bargaining costs.

Foundation attorneys contend that, because the employees were under the impression they had to become formal IAM union members and pay full union dues in order to keep their jobs, they are involuntary union members and thus are not subject to internal union discipline.

Because the Boeing employees work at the Cape Canaveral launch complex – which is considered an “exclusive federal enclave” – they do not enjoy the protections of Florida’s highly-popular Right to Work law. A Right to Work law secures the right of employees to decide for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union.

**Olympia, WA (April 13, 2006)** – Despite admitting that they wrongly threatened and caused the firings of state government workers across Washington for refusing to pay union dues, Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) union officials this week refused a second formal request from the National Right to Work Foundation to refund all forced union dues seized under their unlawful demands. More than 20,000 additional state government employees are now paying dues to the WFSE union – an amount estimated to be more than $10 million to date – under the union hierarchy’s admittedly unlawful “pay up or be fired” threats over the past nine months.

In letters dated March 31 and April 10, National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix wrote to the WFSE union’s head lawyer demanding that his client immediately stop seizing dues and return all dues taken from workers who were not voluntary members of the union at the time the forced dues clause went into effect. “Any action that sincerely respected workers’ rights would include returning all prospective dues seizures and all forced union dues seized pursuant to the union hierarchy’s unlawful ultimatum,” wrote Mix.

In a lawsuit filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington with free legal assistance from the Foundation, a group of Washington state workers charged the WFSE union with denying them their constitutional due-process rights – and subsequently ordering employees across the state fired for refusing to pay compulsory union dues.

Attempting to avoid an embarrassing federal court injunction, WFSE officials claimed they will seek no further firings for the moment, and that they would ensure that all terminated workers be rehired. Foundation attorneys point out that the workers’ lawsuit will proceed as planned because they have received no concrete evidence any of the dues will be returned or multiple due-process violations halted.

“WFSE officials’ shameless refusal to return millions of dollars illegally seized from workers’ paychecks further demonstrates that they are more concerned with fattening their coffers than representing the interests of state employees,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “However, union partisans in the state legislature deserve most of the blame for foisting an unwanted union on these workers in the first place.”

In May 2005, WFSE union officials sent a mailing to state employees informing them they would be fired if they refused to pay union dues. But this notice failed to provide certain constitutionally-required safeguards of employees’ rights to ensure they are not forced to pay for more than the cost of collective bargaining. These safeguards include a verification or audit of union expenditures, as well as an explanation for the basis of the portions of the workers’ fees claimed to be chargeable. WFSE union officials are also unlawfully requiring employees who wish to object to funding political and other non-collective bargaining activities to sign automatic payroll deduction forms.

The state workers charge that the seizure of forced dues by WFSE union officials without due process is a violation of their constitutional rights articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Foundation-won Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson decision. Hudson requires union officials to provide an independently-audited disclosure of their books and justify their expenditures before seizing any forced union dues from employees.

**Related Documents:**
March 31 Letter to WFSE Lawyer
News Release: WFSE Union Officials Forced to Admit Wrongdoing in Ordering State Workers Fired for Refusal to Pay Dues

**Annandale, VA (April 7, 2006)** – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Giant Food worker Kevin Nguyen has filed federal unfair labor practice charges against United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union Local 400 officials for deceiving employees into paying union dues.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charge details how a UFCW union official misled Nguyen to believe that joining the union and paying dues was a condition of his employment and how union officials have been deducting union dues from his paycheck despite his requests that they stop.

Shortly after Giant hired him, Nguyen – a teenager who works part-time at an Annandale Giant store as an after-school job – was approached by a UFCW union official who said that he was “from Giant” and had additional paperwork “from Giant” that Nguyen needed to sign. In doing so the union obtained Nguyen’s signature on a union dues deduction card authorizing the automatic seizure of a significant amount in union dues from his small paycheck. Federal law states that private sector employees cannot be required to sign payroll dues deduction cards as a condition of employment.

“Union operatives must be punished for their bullying of teenagers and other employees to pay union dues,” said Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason. “This case shows what little regard union officials have for the law and the employees they seek to represent.”

The NLRB charge also alleges that this illegal misrepresentation was part of a pattern in which union operatives preyed on students, part-time workers and non-English speaking employees to improperly swindle the employees into paying union dues that they were led to believe were a required condition of employment.

In addition to violating federal law, the union hierarchy’s actions violate the spirit of Virginia’s popular Right to Work law. Virginia is one of 22 states with a Right to Work law that protects employees from being forced to support a union as a condition of employment.

Once Nguyen realized that the he could not be legally forced to pay the union dues he sent a letter to the UFCW local treasurer, resigning his so-called “membership” and asking that the dues deductions stop. He further demanded a refund of all dues collected because he was never a truly voluntary union member. Union officials have so far ignored his demands and continue to collect full dues from his paycheck.

**High Point, NC (April 6, 2006)** – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a group of Thomas Built Buses employees today filed a federal lawsuit against the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for refusing to allow them to bring extraordinary last-ditch union election misconduct to the attention of the agency.

Filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, the suit alleges that the NLRB improperly refused to allow workers to challenge the results of a tainted union election that granted United Auto Workers (UAW) union officials monopoly bargaining power over roughly 1,200 employees at the Thomas Built plant.

NLRB officials decreed that employees may not intervene to assert their rights and challenge union representation election results. The precedent-setting decision contradicts the notion that the National Labor Relations Act establishes rights for employees, rather than simply empowering union officials. Foundation attorneys point out that the ruling violates workers’ procedural due-process rights under the U.S. Constitution.

The NLRB’s decision whitewashed the illegal eleventh hour intervention of Thomas Built to assist its hand-picked union in winning monopoly bargaining representation over the employees. Thomas Built officials issued a surprise memo to all High Point workers in June 2005, one day before a union representation election, announcing that employees would have to pay higher health insurance premiums if they remained nonunion.

Working in tandem, UAW union operatives immediately circulated copies of the memo around the facility with “DID YOU SEE THIS” THE COST OF BEING NON-UNION JUST WENT UP!” written at the top. Employees opposing unionization report that this intervention by the company swung a large number of votes in favor of the union.

Under longstanding NLRB practice, such conduct requires that the election be set aside because it taints the employees’ vote. Union and company officials, however, wanted the same election result and did not file objections. Because the NLRB would not grant independent employees the right to intervene, the UAW union was certified as the monopoly representative because, according to an NLRB regional director, “no timely objections have been filed.”

“Thomas Built employees must be allowed to challenge this unlawful last-minute intervention that clinched an election victory for the UAW union – or workers’ rights under the law will be sharply undercut,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Outrageous decisions like this seriously damage the credibility of the federal agency that supposedly protects the rights of rank-and-file workers.”

Facing prosecution by the NLRB in early 2005, UAW union and Thomas Built officials agreed to cancel outright a company-wide sweetheart deal in which union officials had unlawfully bargained to limit workers’ wage demands and made other concessions in exchange for the company’s assistance in organizing the workers. After the union was forced out of the plant, however, UAW union officials petitioned for the election at issue in this case.

**Olympia, WA (March 29, 2006)** – Facing an embarrassing lawsuit filed by Washington State employees with help from the National Right to Work Foundation, Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) union officials today admitted that they wrongly ordered state government workers across the state fired for refusing to pay union dues, and have apparently asked the state to reinstate temporarily those employees and cease additional firings.

The union begrudgingly took the action today after being notified by Foundation attorneys yesterday that they would file papers in federal court on Monday seeking an injunction to block even more firings which had just been threatened. While dismissing their violation of thousands of Washington State workers’ First Amendment rights as “technical,” union officials have so far failed, however, to return literally millions of dollars in forced union dues seized from thousands of state workers as a result of these illegal “pay up or be fired” threats.

The workers’ lawsuit, filed two weeks ago in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, points out that since obtaining a monopoly bargaining contract over them, WFSE union officials have denied them their constitutional due-process rights – and have even ordered several employees fired for refusing to pay compulsory union dues. As many as 20,000 employees joined the union or paid dues rather than lose their jobs.

Foundation attorneys announced today that the workers’ suit will proceed as planned, and that they have received no concrete evidence that any of the terminated employees will be reinstated, any dues returned, or multiple due-process violations halted.

“WFSE officials view workers’ First Amendment rights as mere ‘technicalities,’ and are trying to backtrack after viciously ruining state employees’ careers,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “Any action that truly honored workers’ rights would include returning all forced union dues seized from state employees under the union hierarchy’s ‘pay up or else’ ultimatum.”

In May 2005, WFSE union officials sent a mailing to state employees informing them they would be forced to pay compulsory union dues as a job requirement. But this notice failed to provide certain constitutionally-required safeguards of employees’ rights to ensure they are not forced to pay for more than the cost of collective bargaining. These safeguards include a verification or audit of union expenditures and an explanation for the basis of the portions of the workers’ fees claimed to be chargeable.

WFSE union officials are also unlawfully requiring employees who wish to object to funding ideological and other non-collective bargaining activities to sign automatic payroll deduction forms.

The state workers charge that the seizure of forced dues by WFSE union officials without due process is a violation of their constitutional rights articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Foundation-won Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson decision. Hudson requires union officials to provide an independently-audited disclosure of their books and justify their expenditures before seizing any forced union dues from employees.

**Related Documents:**
Read the original announcement about the lawsuit
View the Complaint against WFSE et al.