Embattled UAW and Ford back down and settle case; numerous UAW officials currently serving sentences for embezzlement and corruption

Louisville, KY (April 26, 2023) – A Ford Louisville Assembly plant employee has just prevailed in her federal cases against the United Automobile Workers (UAW) Local 862 union and her employer. Shiphrah Green charged union officials in October 2022 with illegally seizing dues money from her paycheck and threatening her job after she exercised her right to refrain from union membership. Green filed a similar charge against Ford for its role in the scheme.

Green received free legal representation from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys, who asserted her rights before National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 9 in Cincinnati. In addition to the illegal dues deductions and threats, Green’s October 2022 charges also detailed that UAW and Ford officials had forced her to navigate several unnecessary and unlawful steps to end her financial support for the union.

Foundation attorneys argued that the UAW union and Ford violated her rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which protects American private sector employees’ right to refrain from any or all union activities. Additionally, Kentucky is a Right to Work state, meaning that state law prohibits union officials and employers from requiring workers to join or pay union dues or fees to keep their jobs.

Now, pursuant to settlements, Green will be reimbursed for all the dues illegally seized from her paycheck. UAW and Ford must also post notices informing workers that they will no longer continue to take dues from employees’ paychecks after they have resigned from the union, or create unlawful roadblocks to terminating membership or stopping dues deductions.

UAW Officials Block Employee from Exercising Basic Rights

According to her charges, Green sent correspondence to both UAW and Ford officials on April 21, 2022, informing them she was resigning her union membership and cutting off union dues deductions from her wages. Neither granted her request, and Green instead received an email from UAW Local 862’s president notifying her that she must come to the union hall to be shown the purportedly “correct” method to leave the union.

At a meeting with union officials at the UAW union hall on April 25, 2022, UAW officials interrogated Green about why she wanted to leave the union. They also demanded she sign a letter listing “benefits” Green would supposedly forgo if she went through with exiting the union.

The charge contended that NLRB precedent prohibits requiring workers to sign such a document so they can exercise their right to end their union membership and stop dues deductions. UAW Local 862’s president apparently went even further. According to the charge, he told Green “if it were up to me, you’d lose your job for leaving the union.”

As this chain of events with the union was unfolding, Green was also trying to get Ford management to end the dues deductions. This also proved fruitless, as Ford officials gave her several confusing responses and even told her at one point that, under the union monopoly bargaining contract, she could only cease dues deductions in February 2023 – even though paperwork she signed previously stated it could be revoked at will.

The charges contended that Ford violated federal law by “continuing to take full union dues” from Green’s paycheck at union bosses’ behest even after she had requested that they stop. The charges also stated that UAW Local 862 violated the law by continuing to accept those illegally-seized dues, by “restricting her union membership resignation, and by making threatening comments that would chill an ordinary employee’s exercise of Section 7 rights.”

After an investigation into the charges, NLRB Region 9 agreed that Ford and UAW officials’ actions violated federal law. To avoid a federal prosecution for their illegal actions, the company and union quickly settled.

Green’s Foundation-won settlements mandate that Ford and the UAW union return all money taken from Green’s paycheck since April 21, 2022, the date she first tried to resign from the union. UAW officials must also abstain from threatening that “you should or could incur disciplinary problems and job loss with Ford Motor Company Louisville Assembly Plant . . . because you inform us that you are resigning from the union.”

Systemic UAW Disrespect for Workers’ Rights May Be Rampant at Louisville Ford Plant

“The recent federal probe into UAW officials stealing and misusing workers’ money has sent multiple top UAW bosses to jail, and uncovered a shocking culture of contempt for workers’ rights,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “As Ms. Green’s case shows, these issues are systemic and widespread, and any other Louisville Ford Assembly Plant worker facing UAW union boss attempts to coerce union membership or dues payment should contact the Foundation for free aid in protecting their legal rights.”

“Louisville Ford Assembly employees should know that, under Kentucky’s Right to Work law, union bosses can’t force them to join or pay any money to the union as a condition of employment,” Mix added.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.