Escondido, CA (March 22, 2010) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a former Vons Grocery employee has filed unfair labor practice charges against United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 135 union officials for misleading him into signing a union card, illegally seizing full union dues from his paycheck, and eventually ordering him fired for attempting to exercise his rights.

In September 2007, Nestor Mendez was told by union officials that he could opt out of union membership and full dues payments by filling out a union membership card and writing “Beck Decision” on top of it. Mendez followed these instructions and wrote a letter in January 2008 informing UFCW officials of his decision not to become a union member.

Under the Foundation-won Supreme Court decision Communications Workers v. Beck, employees can only be forced to pay union dues related to workplace bargaining as a condition of employment. Moreover, union officials are obligated to provide employees with a breakdown of union expenditures to determine how much objecting employees must pay.

Despite his repeated objections, UFCW operatives demanded Mendez pay full union dues, a union initiation fee, and a membership reinstatement fee in the fall of 2009. UFCW officials also failed to provide Mendez with an independent breakdown of union finances.

Although Mendez paid the amount he believed he was required, union officials refused to honor his check and continued to insist he pay the full amount. At union officials’ insistence, Mendez was fired for refusing to pay union membership dues on December 14, 2009.

Mendez’s unfair labor practice charges seek financial compensation for lost wages and reinstatement of his position at Vons Grocery. The charges will now be investigated by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

“Union officials have to resort to trickery and deception when they can’t persuade workers to join a union of their own free will,” said Patrick Semmens, legal information director of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “If union organizers will go this far to coerce a worker into signing a union card to collect a few more dollars, we can only imagine how widespread union intimidation and abuse are during a card check drive when dues from an entire workplace are at stake.”

Under the proposed Card Check Forced Unionism Bill pending in Congress, the secret ballot for unionization elections would be replaced by a system that allows union organizers to personally solicit union authorization cards from employees similar to the union membership card UFCW operatives tricked Mendez into signing.

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.