Washington Family Child Care Providers File Federal Class-Action Lawsuit Challenging Forced Unionization

Home-based child care providers forced into SEIU ranks against their will

Olympia, WA (March 5, 2015) – Today, a group of family child care providers filed a federal class-action lawsuit challenging a 2006 law that authorizes the forcible unionization of Washington State’s 12,000 home-based child care providers.

With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys in conjunction with the Freedom Foundation, Cindy Mentele and three other providers from around the state filed the suit against Governor Jay Inslee and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 925. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

The child care providers’ lawsuit challenges the forced-unionism scheme on the grounds that it violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of free political expression and association. National Right to Work Foundation attorneys argue that such schemes violate providers’ First Amendment right to choose with whom they associate to petition the government because the government does not have the constitutional authority to force citizens to accept its handpicked political representative to lobby itself.

Click here to read the full release.

Olympia, WA (March 5, 2015) – Today, a group of family child care providers filed a federal class-action lawsuit challenging a 2006 law that authorizes the forcible unionization of Washington State’s 12,000 home-based child care providers.

With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys in conjunction with the Freedom Foundation, Cindy Mentele and three other providers from around the state filed the suit against Governor Jay Inslee and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 925. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

The child care providers’ lawsuit challenges the forced-unionism scheme on the grounds that it violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of free political expression and association. National Right to Work Foundation attorneys argue that such schemes violate providers’ First Amendment right to choose with whom they associate to petition the government because the government does not have the constitutional authority to force citizens to accept its handpicked political representative to lobby itself.

The child care providers seek repayment of union fees illegally taken from them by the Governor, and given to SEIU Local 925, over the past three years.

Home-based child care and personal care providers, with Right to Work Foundation attorneys’ assistance, have challenged similar forced-unionization-by-government-fiat schemes in several states across the country, including Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and New York. On June 30, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in Harris v. Quinn striking down the Illinois scheme, ruling that individuals who receive state subsidies based on their clientele cannot be forced to pay compulsory union fees. The Court did not rule on whether providers can be forced to accept the union’s so-called representation under a monopoly bargaining scheme. The next day, the Court cleared the path for 50,000 home child care providers in Michigan to receive a refund of union dues illegally taken during Michigan’s now-defunct unionization scheme.

“Citizens have the power to select their political representation in government, not the other way around,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “This scheme, which forces small business owners, and even grandma taking care of her grandchildren, into SEIU union political association is a slap in the face of fundamental American principles we hold dear.”

More Oil Refinery Workers File Federal Charge in Response to Steelworker Union Strike Intimidation

Union officials threatening workers who exercise their rights to continue working during union boss-ordered strike

Houston, TX (March 4, 2015) – In the wake of a recent federal charge filed against a local Steelworker union for intimidating Shell oil workers for refusing to abandon their jobs during the ongoing, highly-publicized United Steelworker (USW) union-instigated strike, three additional Houston-based oil refinery workers have filed a federal charge against the union.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, LyondellBasell Industries employees Yvonne Hendrix, Richard Jackson, and Kyle MacDonnell filed the unfair labor practice charge Monday with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The charge alleges that USW Local 13-227 union officials are resorting to harassing, coercing, and threatening workers for refusing to abandon their jobs. Over the course of several meetings, a USW Local 13-227 union official has threatened workers who continue to work during the strike with job termination and other retaliation. Further, USW Local 13-227 union officials have allowed a union Facebook page to be used to communicate threats against workers who continue to work during the strike, and against employees who are contemplating returning to work.

Click here to read the full release.

Houston, TX (March 4, 2015) – In the wake of a recent federal charge filed against a local Steelworker union for intimidating Shell oil workers for refusing to abandon their jobs during the ongoing, highly-publicized United Steelworker (USW) union-instigated strike, three additional Houston-based oil refinery workers have filed a federal charge against the union.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, LyondellBasell Industries employees Yvonne Hendrix, Richard Jackson, and Kyle MacDonnell filed the unfair labor practice charge Monday with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The charge alleges that USW Local 13-227 union officials are resorting to harassing, coercing, and threatening workers for refusing to abandon their jobs. Over the course of several meetings, a USW Local 13-227 union official has threatened workers who continue to work during the strike with job termination and other retaliation. Further, USW Local 13-227 union officials have allowed a union Facebook page to be used to communicate threats against workers who continue to work during the strike, and against employees who are contemplating returning to work.

Last week, Foundation attorneys also assisted Joseph Smith of Friendswood, Texas in filing a federal charge against the USW Local 13-1 union on similar grounds. At Smith’s plant in Deer Park, roughly 150 of the approximately 800-large workforce have continued to work during the strike, with many resigning their membership in the USW Local 13-1 union, as is their right under federal labor law and Texas’ popular Right to Work law. As the stream of workers resigning union membership and returning to work grows every day, it was reported that USW Local 13-1 union officials turned off their fax machine in an attempt to stop workers from exercising their right to resign and return to work.

“As USW union bosses lose support from rank-and-file workers, they have resorted to threats and intimidation against workers who have decided not to toe the union boss line and instead provide for their families,” said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. “It is indefensible that workers who resign their union membership and continue to work to support their families in defiance of the USW boss-ordered strike are now being harassed and threatened for exercising their rights.”

In response to the high-profile strike, the National Right to Work Foundation recently issued a special legal notice to workers affected which lays out their rights under federal labor law: https://www.nrtw.org/en/special-legal-notice-usw-refinery-strike-02032015.

Worker Advocate to Testify before Congress on the Dangers of the NLRB’s New Ambush Election Rules

Foundation staff attorney explains how rule changes undermine workers’ rights

Washington, DC (March 3, 2015) – Tomorrow morning, National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney Glenn Taubman will testify before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions on the dangers of the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) recently-enacted regulations that will further give union organizers the upper hand over independent-minded employees during unionization campaigns.

The Subcommittee, which is chaired by Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), will focus on a series of election rule changes designed to dramatically shorten the time individual workers have to share information with their coworkers about the effects of unionization. The regulations also require employers to hand over workers’ private information to union organizers, including their phone numbers and email addresses.

Taubman, a veteran Foundation staff attorney, will contend that dramatically shortening the period before unionization elections will hurt workers’ ability to cast an informed vote.

Click here to read the full release.

Washington, DC (March 3, 2015) – Tomorrow morning, National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney Glenn Taubman will testify before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions on the dangers of the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) recently-enacted regulations that will further give union organizers the upper hand over independent-minded employees during unionization campaigns.

The Subcommittee, which is chaired by Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), will focus on a series of election rule changes designed to dramatically shorten the time individual workers have to share information with their coworkers about the effects of unionization. The regulations also require employers to hand over workers’ private information to union organizers, including their phone numbers and email addresses.

Taubman, a veteran Foundation staff attorney, will contend that dramatically shortening the period before unionization elections will hurt workers’ ability to cast an informed vote.

“[Federal labor law] is not about unions or employers: it is about whether the employee has information from both sides to make a free and informed choice,” wrote Taubman in testimony submitted to the Subcommittee prior to the hearing.

“The NLRB has once again resuscitated these draconian election rules designed to make unionization campaigns even more one-sided in an effort to boost union bosses’ forced dues ranks,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The Obama Labor Board’s latest give-away to Big Labor will ambush unsuspecting workers into union ranks and encroaches on the privacy rights of employees who may oppose unionization in their workplace.”

Harrisburg, PA (March 2, 2015) – Last Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court effectively ended teacher unions’ stranglehold over public school teachers’ access to information about their workplace rights by affirming education activists’ request to acquire the names and home addresses of teachers across the state. National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys intervened in the case for Simon Campbell, president of Pennsylvanians for Union Reform, who sought the addresses to inform educators of their rights to refrain from union membership and opt out of paying dues for union politics.

In 2009, Campbell and Pennsylvanians for Union Reform submitted a request with the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records for the names and home addresses of over 200,000 Pennsylvania educators. Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) union lawyers responded by filing a lawsuit against the Office of Open Records to block the release of that information.

Campbell and his organization want to inform teachers of their rights to refrain from union membership and the payment of dues for union politics. Although Pennsylvania teachers can be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment, they cannot be constitutionally required to join a union or pay dues for anything unrelated to workplace bargaining, such as union political activism.

Unfortunately, union officials are often reluctant to inform teachers of their rights to opt out. Campbell’s public information campaign is aimed at informing educators of their workplace rights to ensure that no teacher is unwittingly funding controversial union politics.

In a 5-2 decision, the Commonwealth Court ruled that Campbell was entitled to public school teachers’ names and home addresses under the state’s Right to Know law so long as the teachers were informed of his request and allowed to challenge the release of that information.

“This case is a victory for Pennsylvanians seeking to end Big Labor’s stranglehold on their state’s public school system,” said Patrick Semmens, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Education activists should be able to notify teachers of their rights to refrain from union membership and the payment of full union dues.”

“This victory is particularly vital because union officials often keep teachers in the dark about their workplace rights in order to keep filling their coffers with full union dues,” added Semmens.

Worker Advocate Urges Supreme Court to Take Case to Overturn Government Union Bosses Forced Dues Powers

Case builds on Foundation-won Supreme Court precedents

Washington, DC (March 2, 2015) – National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys have filed a “friend of the Court” brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, urging it to hear a challenge to public-sector union officials’ power to force America’s civil servants into dues-paying ranks. Foundation attorneys filed the brief late Friday in support of the challenge, titled Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, brought by ten California teachers supported by the Center for Individual Rights.

Nearly 40 years ago, the Court ruled in the Foundation’s Abood v. Detroit Board of Education case that public-sector workers can be compelled to pay union fees as a condition of employment, but have a constitutional right to refrain from the part used for union political and members-only activities. Since then, National Right to Work Foundation-assisted workers have repeatedly challenged government union officials’ power to force public employees into union fee payments as a job condition.

Click here to read the full release.

Washington, DC (March 2, 2015) – National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys have filed a “friend of the Court” brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, urging it to hear a challenge to public-sector union officials’ power to force America’s civil servants into dues-paying ranks. Foundation attorneys filed the brief late Friday in support of the challenge, titled Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, brought by ten California teachers supported by the Center for Individual Rights.

Nearly 40 years ago, the Court ruled in the Foundation’s Abood v. Detroit Board of Education case that public-sector workers can be compelled to pay union fees as a condition of employment, but have a constitutional right to refrain from the part used for union political and members-only activities. Since then, National Right to Work Foundation-assisted workers have repeatedly challenged government union officials’ power to force public employees into union fee payments as a job condition.

In 2012, the Court suggested in the Right to Work Foundation-won Knox v. SEIU ruling that it was ready to reassess whether union officials’ forced dues powers, which it called “something of an anomaly,” violate workers’ First Amendment rights. Responding to that suggestion, many workers have filed lawsuits seeking to eliminate forced unionism in America. Several of those cases are Foundation-supported.

In Knox‘s wake, the Court ruled last year in another Foundation-won case that individuals who indirectly receive state subsidies based on their clientele cannot be forced to pay union fees. This victory in Harris v. Quinn, a class-action suit filed by several Foundation-assisted Illinois homecare providers, renders unconstitutional similar homecare unionization schemes in at least 13 other states, freeing roughly 500,000 providers from forced union dues nationwide. Moreover, in Harris, the Court criticized Abood‘s allowance of any forced fees for public employees as “questionable on several grounds.”

Foundation staff attorneys also are assisting nine airline fleet employees who are suing the Transport Workers Union of America to establish railroad and airline workers’ right to refrain from paying any union dues or fees. In December 2014, a federal district court judge granted the case class-action status. Underscoring the case’s significance, the Department of Justice then intervened in the case to defend the constitutionality of forced union fees.

In their Friedrichs brief, Foundation attorneys explain why the Court should take the case and strike down union officials’ forced dues powers, describing the lessons learned from many cases involving workers who have struggled to stop paying for union politics against their will.

“Union bosses have abused their extraordinary government-granted power to compel workers to fund their political activities unless workers object – a power granted no other private organization in our country – for far too long,” said Mark Mix, president of National Right to Work. “The First Amendment right of workers who refrain from union membership to automatically not pay union dues at all, especially for politics, is long overdue.”