Pittsburgh, PA (March 12, 2009) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Pittsburgh Precision Turned Products employees recently overcame frivolous union boss blocking charges to eject the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 623 union.

In November 2009, Kathleen Lobodinsky, an employee at Precision Turned Products, solicited signatures from coworkers to hold an election to eject Local 623 from their workplace. Instead of defending their presence to employees, union officials responded by filing spurious blocking charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), alleging that company officials unlawfully assisted Lobodinsky’s efforts to collect employee signatures.

Although Right to Work attorneys helped Lobodinsky assemble evidence to prove she had acted without employer support, union officials withdrew their allegations before the NLRB could dismiss the case. Lobodinsky went on to collect enough signatures to trigger a union decertification election, which took place on February 24, 2010. After supervising the election, the NLRB reported that Precision Turned Products employees voted against the union.

On March 11, the NLRB issued a final certification order, confirming that the union is no longer the monopoly bargaining agent for Pittsburgh Precision Turned Products.

Workers typically face serious obstacles to ejecting an unwanted union. Decertification elections can only take place towards the end of a union’s contract, which can last up to three years, and employees must collect signatures from over one third of the bargaining unit to trigger a vote on the union’s presence. Moreover, union lawyers often resort to spurious legal tactics to delay voting or to deter employees from going through with a decertification election.

Despite these obstacles, Lobodinsky and her coworkers successfully removed Local 623 from their workplace. As a result, Precision Turned Products employees are no longer forced to accept union “representation” and can now bargain individually with the company over terms and conditions of their employment.

“Instead of defending their presence in the workplace, union bosses often resort to frivolous legal schemes to stop employees from voting out an unwanted union,” said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Fortunately, Kathleen Lobodinsky and her coworkers weren’t intimidated by the union’s legal maneuverings and prevailed in their efforts to eject unwanted United Electrical bosses from their workplace.”

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.