Grand Rapids, MI – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Johnson Controls (JCIM) employee at the Talon Court facility in Kentwood has filed a decertification petition seeking an election to oust the United Auto Workers (UAW) union as the JCIM workers’ monopoly bargaining agent.

The development is another blow to the UAW union hierarchy which has taken a major public relations hit in recent months because of its role in driving the Big Three automakers to the brink of bankruptcy.

JCIM worker Dawn Lambert filed the decertification petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which should conduct a secret-ballot election to determine whether or not a majority of the workforce wants to retain the UAW union as their monopoly bargaining agent. Under federal labor law governing the private sector, once the NLRB grants union officials monopoly bargaining status, it is illegal for any present or future employees – whether they are members of the union or not – to negotiate with their employer for themselves unless they can prove that the union hierarchy does not retain majority support.

Because a clear majority of the employees at the Talon Court facility in Kentwood have expressed their intent to remove the UAW, National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys have also sent a letter to JCIM management demanding that they cease further contract negotiations and also withdraw recognition of what is now a minority union. Under the law, recognizing and negotiating with a union that does not have majority support is an unfair labor practice.

The decertification drive against the UAW in Kentwood comes amidst a UAW campaign to unionize JCIM workers in nearby Holland. In Holland, UAW union bosses are pressuring JCIM to provide union organizers with access to company facilities and personal information about its employees, including their names, phone numbers, and home addresses.  Numerous employees at the JCIM Holland facility have responded by sending JCIM a letter asking that the company not release their personal information to the UAW union. To view a sample of the letter, click here.

Union bosses use this information to pressure employees to sign union authorization cards at work and at home. History shows that during “card check” campaigns union organizers frequently harass and even mislead workers into signing these cards. Once union officials collect signed cards from a majority of the workers, JCIM in Holland could be forced to recognize the union as the monopoly bargaining agent of all employees in the bargaining unit, even for those workers who would prefer to negotiate their own wages and working conditions based on their individual merit.

“Employees are apparently sick and tired of the UAW bosses’ role in fomenting conflict in the workplace, job losses, corruption, and Far Left political activism,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation.

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.