Labor Board Slaps Grocery Union Bosses with Federal Complaint for Statewide Illegal Forced-Dues Scheme
Suspecting widespread abuse, Right to Work Foundation gears up legal aid program to assist any of the tens of thousands of employees affected
Phoenix, AZ (April 1, 2010) – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Phoenix has issued a statewide complaint alleging that local union bosses and Fry’s Food Stores are illegally blocking independent-minded workers from stopping union dues payments.
The prosecution is the result of a four month long investigation of charges filed by Fry’s employees with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys. Employees from several Fry’s locations filed the federal charges challenging the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 99 union hierarchy and Fry’s management, after union and company officials refused to honor the employees’ legal rights to revoke their dues deduction authorizations and continued to illegally seize union dues from their paychecks.
Upset by the UFCW Local 99 strike threat last November, the employees resigned from the union and revoked their dues deduction authorizations – used by union officials to automatically withhold dues from employee paychecks – during a time in which the union did not have a contract at their workplaces. Under Arizona’s popular Right to Work law, no worker can be required to join or pay any money to a union; and under federal labor law, employees can revoke their dues deduction authorizations once a contract terminates.
The Phoenix NLRB regional director found that the dues deduction authorizations used by UFCW Local 99 union officials at all Fry’s locations are illegal because the dues deduction authorizations do not allow employees to revoke them during contract hiatus periods, as required by federal law.
Suspecting that the illegal dues deduction forms are used in all workplaces in Arizona where UFCW union bosses enjoy monopoly bargaining privileges, Foundation attorneys are now offering free legal aid to all employees affected by the illegal UFCW dues deduction authorizations.
View the full press release and the list of UFCW Local 99 union organized employers in Arizona here.
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.
