The following article is from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation’s bi-monthly Foundation Action Newsletter, January/February 2023 edition. To view other editions of Foundation Action or to sign up for a free subscription, click here.
Union bosses seized full dues over employees’ clear objections, despite state Right to Work laws
“[I]t is time union officials accept that ‘no means no,’” said Buitoni employee Steven Ricketts, who is fighting to stop all dues as provided by Virginia’s Right to Work law.
DANVILLE, VA – For workers under the protection of Right to Work laws, union membership and financial support are supposed to be strictly voluntary. However, as recent cases brought with Foundation legal aid for workers in Kentucky and Virginia demonstrate, even in the 27 states that currently have Right to Work laws, union bosses will often attempt to illegally seize dues over workers’ objections.
“Living in Right to Work Virginia, it is outrageous that we need to take legal action just to stop union dues from being seized against our will,” commented Steven Ricketts, one of two employees at Buitoni Food Company who recently filed charges against United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9555. “I don’t want my money supporting the United Steelworkers union, and it is time union officials accept that ‘no means no’ when a worker resigns from the union and revokes their dues authorization.”
Ricketts and fellow employee Donald Hale each hand-delivered letters to both USW union officials and to their employer, formally resigning their union memberships and revoking their dues check-off authorizations.
Steelworkers Bosses Ignore 75-Year-Old Virginia Right to Work Law
After the workers’ letters were delivered, dues deductions briefly stopped only to quickly resume. In the case of Ricketts, Buitoni Food Company not only restarted union dues deductions but also deducted double the dues amount in a subsequent paycheck. Deductions from Mr. Hale’s paycheck also resumed without his authorization after a short period.
Mr. Ricketts sent an email to the company’s human resources department after the dues seizures restarted and was told to contact union officials about it. Each employee sent another letter to the United Steelworkers union, specifically requesting copies of their dues check-off authorizations. However, money continues to be deducted without their consent and without the union officials producing copies of the authorizations that are legally required before any such deductions can occur.
Eventually the workers filed unfair labor practice charges against both the USW and their employer for their respective roles in the unauthorized union dues deductions.
Regarding the Foundationbacked charges, Hale noted: “I’m grateful for the National Right to Work Foundation assistance in enforcing my legal rights, but it really shouldn’t take a federal case to cease the collection of union dues.”
Meanwhile in neighboring Kentucky, Shiphrah Green, who works at Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant, filed similar charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the United Automobile Workers (UAW) Local 862 union, as well as the UAW international union and Ford, for illegal union dues deductions.
Kentucky Autoworker Hits UAW Union with Federal Charges
Green notified both Ford and UAW union officials in April 2022 that she was resigning her union membership and cutting off all union dues deductions from her wages, as is her right under Kentucky’s Right to Work law. Instead of honoring her request, Green instead received an email from UAW Local 862’s president notifying her that Green needed to be shown the allegedly “correct” method to leave the union.
During a subsequent meeting with union officials at the UAW union hall, UAW officials subjected Green to interrogation about why she wanted to leave the union, and also demanded she sign a letter listing “benefits” Green would supposedly forgo if she went through with exiting the union. Longstanding NLRB precedent makes such restrictions on resignation illegal, as was the UAW Local 862 president’s coercive statement to Green that “if it were up to me, you’d lose your job for leaving the union.”
Despite Green’s resignation and requests to cut off union dues, UAW and Ford did not stop dues deductions. While Green continued trying to get Ford management to end the dues deductions, her efforts proved futile, as Ford officials gave her several confusing responses and even told her that she could only cease dues deductions in February 2023, even though the previously authorized dues deduction document could be revoked at will.
Finally, after getting the runaround from both Ford and the UAW, Green filed charges with the NLRB in October using free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation. As this issue went to print, Labor Board regional officials were conducting an investigation to see if Ford and the union should be prosecuted for illegal dues seizures.
Foundation Attorneys Play Essential Role in Limiting Union Boss Power
“As thousands of Foundation cases have demonstrated — whether in Right to Work states or forceddues jurisdictions, or whether litigated for government employees or private sector workers — limits on union bosses’ power to seize money from workers mean little if they aren’t enforced,” commented National Right to Work Foundation Vice President Patrick Semmens.
“Virginia has had a Right to Work law on the books for over 75 years, while Kentucky’s Right to Work law is barely over five years old, but in both commonwealths, union bosses are illegally seizing union dues,” added Semmens. “These cases show why defending and enforcing workers’ Right to Work protections has been and will remain a top priority of the Foundation.”
