Federal labor board charges filed by National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys has just paid off big for a group of Georgia employees… to the tune of a quarter of a million dollars.

In September of 2005, Foundation staff attorneys filed unfair labor practice charges against the International Longshoreman’s Local 1414 union in Savannah, Georgia. The notoriously thuggish longshoremen union bosses had been forcing nonmember employees to pay dues to seek work at a union-controlled hiring hall. This policy violated Georgia’s Right to Work law, which holds that workers cannot be forced to pay any dues if they choose not to belong to a union.

In May, an NLRB settlement forced the union to partially reimburse nonmember employees, but until recently it wasn’t revealed just how much money the union had previously extorted. According to the latest edition of the NLRB’s regional newsletter (pdf), the union had no choice but to refund $250K to nonmember workers that union officials illegally collected.

Unfortunately, the NLRB’s settlement only reduced workers’ fees but did not end the requirement to pay union dues for use of the union controlled hiring hall. Employees are still challenging the forced fees as a violation of Georgia’s Right to Work law.