Penske Truck Rental Employees in Minneapolis and Nashville Overwhelmingly Vote to Remove Machinists Union
Majority of workers in both work units have prevailed in effort to free themselves of unwanted IAM union bosses’ so-called ‘representation’
MINNEAPOLIS, MN & NASHVILLE, TN – Majorities of Penske Truck Rental employees at locations in Minnesota and Tennessee have voted to remove the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union from their respective workplaces. The decertification petitions were filed by workers with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation in April with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), asking the agency to hold votes to formally remove IAM union officials’ monopoly bargaining power.
On May 1 in Minneapolis, Minnesota workers voted 26 to 7 to remove IAM District Lodge No. 77 union officials. The NLRB-supervised decertification election took place after Penske employee Kyle Fulkerson submitted a petition on April 4, 2024 signed by a majority of his coworkers asking the NLRB to hold a vote to remove the union from the facility.
“This lopsided vote is a testament to the fact that after having seen the IAM up close and personal in our workplace, my colleagues and I are confident that we are better off without union officials so-called ‘representation,” said Fulkerson about the outcome, which became final on May 8 after a one-week objection period passed with no union challenge to the outcome being filed.
Meanwhile in Tennessee, Penske employee David Saylor filed his decertification petition on April 11 backed by a majority of the employees at the downtown Nashville Penske location. On May 8, they voted 15 to 8 to oust IAM District Lodge No. 735. Today, on Thursday, May 16, 2024, the vote became finalized absent a last ditch attempt by union officials to overturn the workers’ vote.
The Minneapolis and Nashville-based workers are not the only Penske employees to remove unwanted union so-called “representation” with legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation. In 2022, every worker but one as a Penske facility in Indiana signed a petition seeking to decertify the Teamsters union officials at that location. Before an NLRB-supervised decertification election was scheduled, Teamsters officials issued a statement, disclaiming representation in an apparent attempt to spare themselves the embarrassment of an overwhelming vote by workers to reject the union’s so-called “representation.”.
“Workers across the country are increasingly exercising their rights to remove unwanted unions, with more decertification elections held last year than in any year since 2017,” said National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “No worker anywhere should be forced under the so-called ‘representation’ of a union they oppose, and Foundation staff attorneys stand ready to assist workers wanting to hold a decertification election to oust a union they oppose and believe they would be better off without.”
KIPP St. Louis Charter High School Educators to Vote This Week on Whether to Oust AFT Union Bosses
Union decertification election will take place among wide swath of school employees, including teachers, advisors, administrative staff, and others
St. Louis, MO (May 14, 2024) – Teachers, advisors, nurses, and other employees at KIPP St. Louis High School will vote this week on whether to remove American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union officials from power at the school. The union decertification vote follows KIPP teacher Robin Johnston’s submission of a “decertification petition” earlier this month to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 14 in St. Louis. Johnston filed the decertification petition with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation.
The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law, which includes administering elections to install (or “certify”) and remove (or “decertify”) unions. Johnston’s petition contains signatures from enough of her coworkers to trigger a decertification vote under NLRB rules.
Because Missouri lacks Right to Work protections for its private sector workers (which includes employees at public charter schools like KIPP), union officials have the legal privilege to enforce contracts that force workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of getting or keeping a job. In contrast, in Right to Work states, union membership and union financial support are strictly voluntary.
However, in both Right to Work and non-Right to Work states, union officials in a unionized workplace are empowered by federal law to impose a union contract on all employees in the work unit, including those who oppose the union. A successful decertification vote strips union officials of both their forced-dues and monopoly bargaining powers.
Vote Set to Take Place May 17
“AFT union officials haven’t stood up for us,” commented Johnston. “I think the majority of my coworkers agree that they’ve only made it harder for us to help our students succeed, especially through a divisive strike order, and that’s a trend I hope we can reverse with this vote. We hope the election proceeds without delay and without interference from union officials.”
The NLRB has scheduled a vote to occur on Friday, May 17. According to Johnston’s petition, the vote will occur among “College and Career Advisors, English Language Learners, Leads, Lead Teachers, Learning Support Teachers, Mental health Professionals, School Nurses, Special Ed. Teachers, Specials Teachers, Speech Language Pathologists, Virtual Learning Facilitators, Behavior Support Specialists, High School Registrars, Long Term Subs, Office Coordinators, Paraprofessionals, Permanent Building Subs and Receptionists” at the school.
Foundation attorneys have recently aided other charter school educators in efforts to remove unwanted union officials, most recently in San Diego, CA, where employees of Gompers Preparatory Academy prevailed in 2023 after a nearly four-year effort to vote out the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) union, an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA).
“Top teacher union officials, including Randi Weingarten of the AFT and Becky Pringle of the NEA, seem to regularly make headlines for political radicalism and not for anything related to helping teachers, which seems to be a reality on the ground at KIPP St. Louis,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Ms. Johnston and her fellow educators join a growing number of workers across the country who are realizing that union boss agendas don’t align with what’s best for them, and Foundation attorneys are proud to help them exercise their right to vote away unwanted union control.”
Michigan Security Guard Slams Union with Federal Charges for Illegal Dues Seizures, Transparency Issues
Union officials fail to provide required information on how dues money is spent, already face vote which could stop forced-dues spigot
Grand Rapids, MI (May 8, 2024) – James Reamsma, a security guard whose posts include the Gerald R. Ford Federal Building and other government sites in the Grand Rapids area, has hit the United Government Security Officers of America (UGSOA) union with federal unfair labor practice charges maintaining that UGSOA union officials are seizing dues money from his paycheck without providing required disclosures on how the union spends worker cash. Reamsma filed the charges at Region 7 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Detroit.
Reamsma is also leading his fellow security guards at Triple Canopy Inc. in an effort to vote away the UGSOA’s power to compel guards to pay dues or fees to the union in what is known as a “deauthorization election.” He is receiving free legal aid in both actions from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
Reamsma’s charges seek to enforce his rights under the Communications Workers of America v. Beck Supreme Court decision, which was won by Right to Work Foundation attorneys. The Court held in Beck that union officials cannot force workers who have abstained from union membership to pay union dues or fees for expenses not directly germane to contract negotiations, such as union political activities. Workers who exercise their Beck rights are also entitled to an independent audit of the union’s finances, a breakdown of how union officials spend forced contributions, and an opportunity to challenge how the union calculates its reduced “Beck fee.”
Beck rights are only relevant in non-Right to Work jurisdictions like Michigan, where union officials have the legal privilege to force private sector workers to pay dues or fees as a condition of getting or keeping a job. In contrast, in Right to Work states like neighboring Indiana and Wisconsin, union membership and all union financial support are strictly voluntary. Michigan had Right to Work protections until a 2023 repeal rammed through by union partisans on the Michigan Legislature became effective earlier this year.
Union Dubiously Claims No Dues Money Goes to Politics
According to Reamsma’s charge, he submitted a notice to UGSOA union agents in March that requested the union reduce his dues payments in accordance with Beck and provide him with the required financial information. In response, union officials claimed that the amount of dues chargeable to nonmembers was equal to 100% of full union dues. Reamsma’s charge states that UGSOA “failed to provide the required financial disclosures for itself and its affiliated unions, and a chance to object to its alleged reduced fee.”
The charge also notes that, despite Reamsma notifying union officials in April that he prefers to pay union dues by check, UGSOA ignored this request and has continued to take money directly from his paycheck by payroll deduction. Federal labor law forbids union officials from using direct deduction to collect union dues or fees without worker consent.
Foundation attorneys argue in the charge that the union’s continued seizing of dues money from Reamsma’s paycheck “restrain[s] and coerce[s] Charging Party in the exercise of his Section 7 rights” under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRA protects the right of workers to refrain from union activities.
Guards May Vote to End Forced Dues
The NLRB has scheduled May 17 to count the votes in Reamsma’s deauthorization election, which is currently taking place by mail. If a majority of his colleagues vote to deauthorize the union, it will no longer have the legal power to coerce Reamsma and his colleagues to pay dues or fees as a condition of employment. Michigan’s non-Right to Work environment forces workers to either deauthorize a union or vote it out of a workplace completely (via a similar process known as “decertification”) if they want to end union officials’ forced-dues power.
“UGSOA union officials appear to be withholding vital information about how they spend worker money from the very security guards they claim to ‘represent,’” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “If union bosses won’t respect basic worker rights regarding the collection and spending of dues money, Triple Canopy security guards should rightly be skeptical of whether UGSOA deserves the privilege to force them to pay dues or fees at all.
“While it’s illegal everywhere to force workers to pay for union political expenditures they oppose, the choice to financially back a union at all should rest solely with each individual worker, which is why Right to Work protections are so important,” Mix added.
Majority of Employees at Emporia Rehabilitation and Healthcare Seek to Remove SEIU Union
Decertification election to remove “Workers United Mid Atlantic Regional Joint Board” union officials set for Thursday
Emporia, VA (May 8, 2024) – A majority of employees at Emporia Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Emporia, Virginia, have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a secret ballot vote to remove the Workers United Mid Atlantic Regional Joint Board union from their workplace. A decertification election has been scheduled for Thursday, May 16. Emporia employee Christy Smith filed the petition requesting the vote with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
Smith filed the union decertification petition on April 18 with the NLRB, the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law, which includes administering elections to install (or “certify”) and remove (or “decertify”) unions. Smith’s petition contained support from over half of her 60 coworkers, well more than required to trigger a decertification vote under NLRB rules. SEIU affiliate, “Workers United” [sic] Mid Atlantic Regional Joint Board union officials have maintained monopoly bargaining power at Smith’s workplace for over a decade.
Virginia is a Right to Work state, which means that union financial support is strictly voluntary for employees. In contrast, in states that do not have Right to Work laws, union officials can require employees to pay union dues or fees under threat of termination. However, in both Right to Work and non-Right to Work states, union officials are empowered by federal law to impose a union contract on all employees in the work unit, including those who oppose the union.
A successful decertification vote strips union officials of such monopoly bargaining powers. Nursing staff, Dietary staff, and Housekeeping staff, comprising of the 61 employees at the facility, are eligible to vote in this NLRB-supervised election.
“This majority-backed decertification petition at Emporia Rehabilitation and Healthcare is yet another example of the growing interest among workers in unionized workplaces to reconsider union affiliation,” said Foundation President Mark Mix. “The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation stands ready to provide free legal aid to workers seeking to exercise their right to remove an unwanted union from their workplace and to defend workers against any attempts by union officials to undermine or block workers from freeing themselves from unwanted so-called union ‘representation.’”
Somerset, NJ, Nissan Employees Overwhelmingly Vote Out UAW Union Bosses
Nearly 70% of distribution center employees voted against UAW, vote proceeded despite last-minute contract ratification by union officials and management
Somerset, NJ (April 30, 2024) – During a secret ballot election last week, workers at Nissan North America’s parts distribution center in Somerset, NJ, voted to oust United Auto Workers (UAW) union officials from power at their facility. The workers who participated in the April 24 union decertification election voted by nearly 70% to remove the union. Nissan employee Michael Oliver spearheaded the union removal effort with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
Oliver kick-started the effort by filing a union decertification petition on April 1 with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law, which includes administering elections to install (or “certify”) and remove (or “decertify”) unions. Oliver’s petition contained support from enough of his coworkers to trigger a decertification vote under NLRB rules.
Because New Jersey lacks Right to Work protections for its private sector workers, UAW officials maintained contracts with Nissan management that require Oliver and his coworkers to pay union dues as a condition of keeping their jobs. In Right to Work states, in contrast, union membership and all union financial support are strictly voluntary.
However, in both Right to Work and non-Right to Work states, union officials in a unionized workplace are empowered by federal law to impose a union contract on all employees in the work unit, including those who oppose the union. A successful decertification vote strips union officials of both their forced-dues and monopoly bargaining powers.
If union officials file no objections to the election by midnight on April 30, NLRB officials will certify the vote and Somerset Nissan employees will be officially free of the union.
UAW Union Officials Rushed New Contract in Likely Attempt to Prevent Removal Vote
After Oliver’s April 1 submission of the decertification petition, UAW union officials announced on April 18 that they had ratified a new union contract with Nissan management. The last contract had expired.
While the NLRB’s dubious “contract bar” generally allows union bosses to quash worker-filed decertification efforts for up to three years while a union contract is in effect, the contract bar didn’t stop Oliver and his coworkers’ requested election, because union officials weren’t able to reach a monopoly bargaining agreement with Nissan before Oliver filed his decertification petition. The contract bar does not appear in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the federal law the NLRB is charged with enforcing, and is instead the product of union boss-friendly Board decisions.
Had union officials been able to ratify the contract just a few days earlier, the UAW likely would have succeeded in trapping the workers in union “representation” and forced-dues payments, despite a wide majority wanting to be free of the UAW.
Workers Across Country Growing Dissatisfied with UAW Agenda
Across the country, workers are choosing to affiliate with unions in record-low numbers, according to the most recent Gallup poll on the subject. In 2023, the UAW’s membership fell to its lowest level since 2009. Nonetheless, the UAW’s top bosses are engaged in a multi-million-dollar campaign to expand their influence across nonunion auto facilities, particularly in the South.
Workers are also increasingly attempting to exercise their right to vote out union officials they disapprove of. According to NLRB data, since 2020 decertification petition filings have gone up by over 40%. To resist this trend, the Biden NLRB is attempting to make it substantially more difficult for workers to decertify unions, and could soon issue a final rule invalidating the Election Protection Rule. The Election Protection Rule is a policy which contains multiple important safeguards regarding employees’ right to decertify unions they oppose.
“Mr. Oliver and his fellow Nissan employees are another example that workers who see the UAW up close and personal end up disliking the union’s so-called ‘representation,’” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix.
“While these Nissan workers were able to get a vote to eliminate the UAW from their workplace, too often we hear from workers who are frustrated to learn they may have to wait years before even being able to seek a vote to remove unwanted union monopoly representation,” Mix added. “The vast scores of auto industry workers now within the crosshairs of the UAW’s sweeping organizing plan should remember that union officials often prioritize their own power over workers’ interests, and that biased NLRB standards like the ‘contract bar’ may make it very difficult to remove a union after it has been installed.”
Wonderful Nurseries Workers Hit UFW Union with Charges Detailing Fraudulent Union Campaign, Illegal Discrimination
Charges: Union gained “majority status” through false pretenses and union agents are cracking down on workers that express opposition
Bakersfield, CA (April 26, 2024) – Claudia Chavez and Maria Gutierrez, two workers at food and drink company Wonderful Nurseries LLC’s Wasco, CA, grapevine nursery, have filed charges against the United Farm Workers (UFW) union. They maintain that UFW agents fraudulently obtained membership cards from employees and later used this as a basis to demand monopoly-bargaining power over Wonderful employees statewide. Chavez and Gutierrez filed their charges at the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.
The ALRB is the California state agency responsible for governing labor relations in the state’s agricultural sector, which includes overseeing union attempts to gain bargaining control at farms and other facilities. Chavez and Gutierrez’s charges detail that UFW union officials installed themselves at Wonderful Nurseries through “card check,” which bypasses workers’ right to vote in secret on the union and instead relies on membership (or “authorization”) cards collected by union officials, sometimes under dubious circumstances.
The card check process lacks the security of a secret ballot vote, and exposes workers to intimidation and manipulation from union officials who seek to collect enough cards to claim “majority support” among workers. Under ALRB rules, a union that presents the agency with cards obtained from a majority of workers is immediately certified as the monopoly bargaining agent, a status that can only be challenged after the fact.
Chavez and Gutierrez argue that UFW union officials “by artifice, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, and/or coercion” got them and many of their coworkers to sign membership cards for the union and the union falsely “represent[ed] itself as having obtained the support of a majority of the employees” afterward. Chavez and Gutierrez also contend that UFW bosses are now illegally forbidding employees from revoking the fraudulently-obtained cards, and are harassing and retaliating against employees who oppose the union.
“UFW union officials deceived us just so they could gain power in our workplace,” Chavez and Gutierrez commented. “Instead of just letting us vote in secret on whether we want a union, they went around lying and threatening to get cards and now are cracking down on anyone who speaks out against the union. We hope the ALRB listens to us and prosecutes the union for its illegal acts.”
Union Officials Spread Lies About Union Cards and Engaged in Discrimination to Obtain Signatures
Chavez and Gutierrez’s charges describe multiple fabrications – and even discriminatory behavior – that UFW union bosses used to get employees to sign authorization cards, including “representing that certain COVID-19-related public benefits available to farmworkers required signatures on union membership cards…that union membership cards were not, in fact, union membership cards to be used in any UFW organizing efforts…presenting to strictly Spanish-speaking discriminatees union membership cards only in English…[and] presenting to illiterate discriminatees union membership cards and misrepresenting their content and/or significance.”
With the union installed and UFW agents not letting workers revoke their illicitly-obtained memberships in the union, Chavez and Gutierrez note that UFW union officials are now “engaging in a campaign of harassment, libel, slander, and intimidation against [employees who are] exercising their right of free speech and/or protest under [California labor law] to oppose UFW representation.” News reports suggest that scores of Wonderful Nurseries workers have engaged in outdoor demonstrations against the union, declaring “We don’t want a union, listen to our voices, don’t ignore us.”
In addition to the ALRB charges, Chavez and Gutierrez, along with a dozen other coworkers, seek to intervene in the ongoing ALRB case in which Wonderful Nurseries is challenging the union’s card check majority “certification” as improperly based on cards collected through fraud and other improper means. Foundation staff attorneys represent the group of workers seeking to intervene in that case to defend their right not to be placed under union monopoly control as a result of UFW organizers’ illicit tactics.
“UFW union officials have treated Wonderful Nurseries workers as pawns to be used in their pursuit of power, deceiving them with no regard for their rights and now engaging in retaliation against those who exercise their free speech rights against the union,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Their situation above all shows the glaring flaws of the ‘card check’ process, in which workers are denied a chance to vote in secret on a union and are left exposed to a multitude of illegal union tactics.”
Another MIT Grad Student Hits GSU Union with Federal Labor Charges for Illegally Seizing Money for Radical Union Agenda
Charges: Union officials imposing so-called ‘window period’ restriction to forbid civil engineering grad student from cutting off dues for politics
Boston, MA (April 26, 2024) – Following five Jewish students filing federal religious discrimination charges against the union, the MIT Graduate Student Union (GSU-UE) is now facing new federal unfair labor practice charges from civil engineering graduate student Katerina Boukin. Boukin’s charges, filed at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, maintain that union officials are unlawfully seizing money from her research compensation to support union political activities she abhors.
Boukin seeks to enforce her rights under the 1988 Right to Work Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision. The Court held in Beck that union officials cannot force those under their control to pay dues or fees for union expenses not directly related to collective bargaining, such as political expenses. Nonmembers who exercise their Beck rights are entitled to an independent audit of the union’s finances and a breakdown of how union officials spend forced contributions.
Beck rights are only relevant in non-Right to Work jurisdictions like Massachusetts, where union officials have the legal power to compel the payment of some union fees in a unionized environment. Because of controversial rulings by the Obama and Biden NLRBs, graduate students at private educational institutions like MIT are treated as “employees” who can be subjected to forced union representation and mandatory payments. In jurisdictions that have Right to Work protections, in contrast, union membership and all union financial support are strictly voluntary.
“GSU union officials are going above and beyond what is legal and are forcing me to pay for their political activities, including their opposition to Israel and promotion of Leninist-Marxist global revolution, that I find deeply offensive,” commented Boukin. “The GSU’s political agenda has nothing to do with my research as a graduate student at MIT, or the relationships I have with my professors and the university administration, yet outrageously they demand I fund their radical ideology.”
Union Still Seizing Dues for Politics Under Guise of ‘Window Period’ Restriction
According to Boukin’s charges, she and other graduate students resigned their memberships in the GSU union, revoked their dues “checkoff” authorizations, and objected under Beck to paying anything going toward GSU’s “political and non-representational agenda and expenditures.”
Despite these requests, the charges note, union bosses have “refused to process those Beck objections, refused to immediately reduce the amount of dues and fees collected from Charging Party’s and other graduate students’ [compensation], refused to stop the dues checkoff, and refused to provide Charging Party” with an independent audit explaining the union’s expenses and reduced fee calculation.
Instead, a GSU vice president told Boukin that she had missed an annual “window period” in which to exercise her Beck rights and that her objections would not be considered until November 2024. “In fact, the UE union has adopted an unlawfully restrictive Beck objection policy, precisely to diminish and destroy [the students’]…rights,” says the charge.
The charges note that the union’s unlawful dues scheme restrains and coerces the graduate students from exercising their right under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to refrain from union activity. MIT is also charged for its role in enforcing the union scheme and continuing to collect dues.
Previously, another MIT graduate student, Will Sussman, filed NLRB charges against the UE union for violating his rights under Beck. Sussman filed the charges on his own but later obtained free legal representation from the National Right to Work Foundation.
GSU Also Faces Religious Discrimination Charges, May Be Violating Past Beck-Related Settlement
Sussman’s case concluded because UE settled with the NLRB. As part of that settlement, GSU union officials are required to “notify [all graduate students] of your rights under…Communications Workers v. Beck” and email notices informing students of those rights and post a notice for 60 days. Despite still being within the 60-day notice-posting period, as Boukin’s case shows, GSU officials appear to be violating the spirit if not the letter of that settlement.
Boukin’s unfair labor practice charges come as federal discrimination charges are pending at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for five Jewish graduate students who requested religious accommodations to paying money to the GSU union. Among other things, these students oppose the union’s advocacy for the anti-Israel “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions” (BDS) movement.
“Freedom of association is apparently a foreign concept to GSU union officials, who are flouting layers upon layers of federal law to compel students to fund their radical political agenda,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “However, both this case and Foundation attorneys’ case for the five Jewish MIT graduate students show on a deeper level that the choice to provide support to a union should rest solely with workers, who may have sincere religious, political, or other objections to funding any or all of a union’s activities.”
UAW Faces Federal Charges for Threatening Philly Dometic Employees with Termination If They Go to Work
Charge says union officials sent mass text threatening termination for continuing to work.
Philadelphia, PA (April 23, 2024) – United Auto Workers (UAW) officials at the Philadelphia-area plant of auto accessory manufacturer Dometic are facing new worker-filed charges for sending a mass text to employees illegally threatening their employment if they choose to work during the strike. The new charges, which now await review by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), come after several employees hit the UAW with NLRB charges accusing the union of imposing unlawful disciplinary procedures on them despite their resignation from the union, and illegally seizing money from their paychecks.
Dometic employee Mario Coccie filed the charges with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation. The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the federal law that governs private sector labor relations in the United States. Under the NLRA, American private sector workers have a right to refrain from union activity, and the U.S. Supreme Court recognized in General Motors v. NLRB the right of employees to resign union membership during a strike and continue working.
Coccie, one of the seven workers who originally filed charges against the UAW, included details about the mass text in his charges. According to his filing, the new threats from UAW bosses were directed beyond those who filed charges against the union initially and threaten everyone who choose to work during the strike with losing their jobs and being “judged” by union militants at an internal union trial.
“The information in this text reveals union officials’ real intentions, which is to hurt anyone willing to stand up for themselves,” said Mario Coccie. “What is happening in this case is completely unjust.”
UAW Union Officials Threaten Workers for Desiring to Leave
The UAW’s mass text message, apparently sent by union official Mike Poust, warns workers that “There are and will be consequences for crossing the line becoming a scab [sic] you will be put on trial you will be judged by your peers…[you will] have no right to hold or acquire any [union-controlled] job within the plant.”
These threats come in addition to intimidation detailed by seven Dometic workers in past charges, which explained that a union steward told each of them during a September 8, 2023, meeting that any employee who crossed the UAW’s picket line during the strike would be subject to internal union charges, fined, and ultimately terminated. Despite resigning their union membership and no longer being legally subject to internal union discipline, UAW union officials notified each worker in December 2023 that the union had started proceedings against them and their presence would soon be required at an internal union trial.
The seven employees also charged that union officials ignored their rights as nonmembers under the Right to Work Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court case, and took full union dues (including dues for union political activities) from their paychecks even after they had resigned their membership.
Because Pennsylvania lacks Right to Work protections for its private sector employees, union officials can impose contracts that force workers who have refrained from formal union membership to pay fees to the union as a condition of keeping their jobs. However, as per Beck, this managing fee cannot include any money that funds a union’s political or lobbying activities. Beck also requires union officials to provide financial disclosures to workers who send a Beck notice.
“UAW union officials are waging a multi-million-dollar propaganda campaign to bring more workers into their ranks, but Mr. Coccie and the workers at the Philadelphia Dometic plant represent the reality of what workers experience under the UAW’s control,” Mark Mix, president of the Right to Work Foundation said. “This is just the latest of many examples of the illegal retaliation that workers face when they act independently and refuse to tow the union line. The National Right to Work Legal Foundation stands ready to defend these workers’ rights and the rights of others targeted by power-hungry union bosses.”
Federal Lawsuit Hits Guards Union of America for Illegally Forcing DC-Based Security Guard to Pay for Union Politics
Union officials provided contradictory information on amount a guard must pay the union to keep a job
Washington, DC (April 19, 2024) – Rosa Crawley, a DC-based security guard employed by Master Security, has just hit the International Guards Union of America (IGUA) Local 160 with a federal lawsuit, which maintains that full union dues, including dues for union political activities, are being illegally deducted from her paycheck. Crawley filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.
Crawley, who with her coworkers provides security services to the Department of Homeland Security’s “Nebraska Avenue Complex,” seeks to enforce her rights under the 1988 Right to Work Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision. The Court held in Beck that union officials cannot force workers who have abstained from union membership to pay union dues or fees for any expenses not directly germane to contract negotiations. Nonmember workers who exercise their Beck rights are also entitled to an independent audit of the union’s finances and a breakdown of how union officials spend forced contributions.
Beck rights are only relevant in non-Right to Work jurisdictions like the District of Columbia, where union officials have the legal prvivilege to force private sector workers to pay dues or fees as a condition of getting or keeping a job. In jurisdictions that have Right to Work protections, like neighboring Virginia, union membership and all union financial support are strictly voluntary.
“I shouldn’t have to pay for the IGUA union’s political activity just so I can continue to do my job,” commented Crawley. “Union officials have a legal obligation to stop charging me for politics and provide me with an accounting of how they are using my money, and so far they have done neither. This isn’t how they should treat the workers they say they ‘represent.’”
Union Officials Haven’t Revealed How They Spend Worker Money
According to the suit, Crawley sent a letter to union officials resigning her union membership back in July 2023. Instead of immediately providing her with her Beck rights, union officials informed her that she would be charged a so-called “agency fee” which “is the same exact cost as what the union members pay.”
“So there will be absolutely no change in a financial sense,” the union’s reply letter stated.
Not satisfied with that explanation, Crawley in September 2023 formally invoked her Beck rights and asked union officials to reduce her dues payments in accordance with the decision. She also asked them to “provide [her] with an accounting, by an independent certified public accountant, that justifies Local 160’s calculation of its agency [forced] fee,” according to her lawsuit. In an October 2023 reply to her Beck request, union officials used a confusing percentage averaging calculation to determine a fee amount that contradicted what they told Crawley when she resigned her membership. An independent audit of the union’s finances was nowhere to be found.
Crawley’s lawsuit recounts that, since October 2023, union officials have made her reiterate her request for an accounting, pay an initiation fee equal to the initiation fee paid by full members, and “[have] collected and [continue] to collect from Crawley amounts equal to full union dues.”
“Federal labor law’s default position is that union officials are empowered to demand workers’ hard-earned money as a condition of employment. This is problematic because there are any number of reasons workers may not want to support the union, including religious, political, or financial reasons,” observed National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “While the Beck decision provides important protections, a Right to Work environment is ultimately better because workers are completely free to decide whether or not union officials deserve any of their hard-earned money.”
