Union officials misled employees, continue to unlawfully take full dues from nonmembers

Las Vegas, NV (May 1, 2020) – A Las Vegas security guard is charging the International Union of Security, Police, and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA) with seizing union dues from him and his coworkers in violation of their legal rights. His charge was filed at Region 28 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), based in Phoenix, with free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.

According to the charge by guard Justin Stephens, SPFPA officials extended the monopoly bargaining contract with Stephens’ employer, North American Security, on January 31, 2020. The extension occurred one day after Stephens and his fellow employees sent letters to the union stating that they no longer wanted it as a bargaining agent in their workplace.

The charge explains that Stephens later submitted a batch of letters to SPFPA officials in which he and his fellow employees tried to exercise their rights to resign union membership and stop dues deductions from their paychecks. These letters were sent just before the previous contract between North American Security and the SPFPA was supposed to expire, on March 31, within the period when the employees could stop dues deductions. Because Nevada has enacted Right to Work protections for its employees, union bosses are forbidden from requiring any employee to join or pay dues or fees to a union as a condition of employment.

The charge asserts that the union “did not acknowledge the timely revocation the employees made on the anniversary” of the contract, ostensibly because the union officials’ hurried contract extension eliminated any opportunity the employees had to cut off union dues in anticipation of the contract’s March 31 expiration.

SPFPA bosses are still collecting full union dues “from all non-member bargaining unit employees” in violation of their right under the National Labor Relations Act to refrain from all union activities and support, according to the charge. The charge also calls the sudden extension of the monopoly bargaining contract after the workers notified the union about their opposition “an apparent attempt to avoid a decertification” vote to remove the union.

“It is beyond outrageous that SPFPA bosses believe they can play deceptive games with the workers they claim to represent, pretending to care about the employees’ input only to turn around and violate their individual rights,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “These SPFPA union bosses have demonstrated that they care far more about their ability to illegally extort forced dues from those employees than respect their rights not to fund a union of which they disapprove and to free choice of a workplace representative.”

“This case demonstrates why it is time for the NLRB to eliminate non-statutory policies that let union bosses block employees’ right to vote out a union,” Mix added. “Here the union bosses’ rush to agree to a contract appears to be motivated entirely by their desire to trap workers in dues payments and union control despite overwhelming opposition to the union.”

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.