**Tacoma, WA (November 6, 2006)** – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a local group of mail equipment inspectors filed federal charges against the Teamsters Local 117 union today after union officials unlawfully misinformed them about their rights to refrain from formal union membership – and then threatened to have them fired for exercising those rights.

The workers’ charge, filed at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), details how Teamsters officials illegally informed over 90 Alan Ritchey, Inc. employees that they would be fired if they did not become formal union members and sign dues deduction cards that authorize the union hierarchy to seize full dues from their paychecks. These actions fly in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in *Pattern Makers v. NLRB* and *Communications Workers of America v. Beck*, a case won by Foundation attorneys. These rulings affirmed the right of private sector employees to refrain from formal union membership and pay a reduced amount of forced dues.

The workers argue that, due to the Teamsters union officials’ campaign of coercion and misrepresentation, not a single employee at the Auburn, Washington facility can be considered a voluntary member of the union. Their charges seek that all union memberships and dues deduction cards be voided until union officials provide the workers with correct information regarding their rights, as well as retroactively refund all dues seized under their illegal threats.

“These shameful tactics demonstrate that the Teamsters union hierarchy is more concerned with collecting forced dues than the interests of the employees they claim to ‘represent,’” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “So long as Washington State employees labor without the protections of a Right to Work law, which makes union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary, these unfortunate abuses are bound to continue.”

Despite Teamsters officials’ deliberate attempts to keep Alan Ritchey employees in the dark, a group of workers did send the union hierarchy objection letters asserting their right to pay a reduced forced dues amount that covers only the union’s proven collective bargaining costs – their right under *Beck*.

Union officials responded by declaring the reduced dues amount to be 98.7 percent of full union dues, but then failed to provide legally-mandated financial disclosure to support their forced dues demands. Teamsters officials also instructed the employees to renew their objections in April, and then annually thereafter during a union-imposed “window period.”

Foundation attorneys contend that such annual objection requirements also violate worker protections outlined by Beck.

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.