State Trooper Files Charge Against Connecticut State Police Union

Hartford, CT (August 2, 2012) – A Connecticut state trooper has filed a state charge against a local union for violating his rights.With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, state police trooper Marc Lamberty of Hartford County filed the charge with the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations.In June 2011, Lamberty resigned from formal union membership in the Connecticut State Police Union and invoked his right to refrain from paying full union dues.

Union Bosses Illegally Demand Macy’s Restaurant Employee Pay Nearly $1,000 in Dues or Be Fired

Chicago, IL (August 1, 2012) – A State Street Macy's Walnut Room restaurant worker has filed a federal charge against a local union for intimidating her and violating her rights.With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Kathi Szkolny filed the federal charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board, Workers United Local 2745 union on Monday.Workers United Local 2745 union officials illegally misinformed workers that they must pay full union dues to keep their jobs. Union officials refused to inform workers of their right under Foundation-won Supreme Court precedent in Communication Workers v. Beck to refrain from full dues paying union membership.

Workers Challenge Obama NLRB “Recess Appointments” in Federal Appeals Court

Chicago, Illinois (July 30, 2012) – Four workers filed a brief today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago challenging President Barack Obama's recent purported recess appointees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). David Yost and Ronald Echegaray of Morgantown, West Virginia, Doug Richards of Ligonier, Indiana, and John Lugo of Chicago, Illinois filed the brief with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys. The workers' two cases, Richards, Yost, & Echegaray v. Steelworkers and Lugo v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, were consolidated for hearing before the appeals court. The NLRB found in both cases that union bosses illegally forced workers who exercise their right to refrain from formal union membership to "annually renew" their objections to paying full union dues.

Local Scofflaw Teamster Union Bosses Violate Federal Settlement, Worker’s Rights

Seattle, WA (July 26, 2012) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a Sandy, Oregon, bus driver's case before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has taken yet another dramatic turn.On Monday, a NLRB Regional Director revoked a federal settlement reached between the agency and Teamsters Local 206 union officials after union officials made a mockery of federal labor law and repeatedly violated the settlement.The legal challenge is part of an ongoing legal controversy involving the union and First Student bus driver Richard Harmon, who resigned from formal union membership in Teamsters Local 206 in January 2011.Because Oregon does not have Right to Work protections making union affiliation completely voluntary, Harmon is still forced to pay part of forced union dues to keep his job.

Worker Advocate Testifies Before Congress Regarding Obama Big Labor Paybacks

Washington, DC (July 25, 2012) – This morning, National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney William Messenger is testifying before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.The subcommittee, which is chaired by Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN), is holding the hearing entitled "Examining Proposals to Strengthen the National Labor Relations Act." The hearing is located in room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building and is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. EDT.The hearing is focused on the recent actions of President Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which has issued many decisions undermining worker protections.

Worker Advocate Asks Federal Labor Board to Uphold Precedent Disallowing Forced Unionization of Grad Students

Washington, DC (July 24, 2012) – The National Right to Work Foundation has filed a brief with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asking the Board to uphold its own precedent that disallows union officials from corralling university graduate students into unwanted union affiliation.Foundation staff attorneys filed the amicus curiae brief with the NLRB in a case involving United Autoworkers (UAW) union organizers' attempts to unionize graduate students at New York University and the Polytechnic Institute of New York University and ultimately force them to pay union dues.Foundation attorneys argue that universities do not fit the self-styled industrial model of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) – the federal law governing private-sector labor relations for non-managerial workers – a conclusion of the U.S. Supreme Court in NLRB v. Yeshiva University (1980).

AT&T Workers Petition U.S. Supreme Court to Overturn Union Exemption from Identity Theft Laws

Washington, DC (July 19, 2012) – With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a group of 13 North Carolina-based AT&T (NYSE: T) employees is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review an identity theft case involving federal preemption.In the fall of 2007, Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 3602 union president John Glenn maliciously posted the names and social security numbers of 33 AT&T employees on a publicly accessible bulletin board at the company's facility in Burlington, N.C.All the employees whose names and personal information were posted in a hallway close to the building entrance, accessible to employees and nonemployees alike, had exercised their freedom under the state's Right to Work law to resign from CWA union membership and cease paying union dues.

Worker Slaps Construction Union Bosses with Federal Charge for Job Discrimination

Chicago, IL (July 19, 2012) – With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a nonunion Chicago-area construction worker has filed a federal charge against the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and two of its local affiliate unions for discriminating against him on account of his union membership status.Construction worker John Lugo filed the charge against the IBEW Local 697 and IBEW Local 601 unions with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Monday.Because IBEW union bosses claim monopoly bargaining privileges over all the workers in his workplaces, Lugo, who refrains from formal union membership, is still forced to accept union officials' so-called "representation" and go through the union's hiring halls to find employment.

Worker Advocate Asks Federal Labor Board to Uphold Precedent Disallowing Forced Unionization of Professors

Washington, DC (July 11, 2012) – The National Right to Work Foundation filed an amicus curiae ('friend of the court") brief with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asking the Board to uphold the U.S. Supreme Court's long-standing precedent that disallows union officials from corralling most university professors into unwanted union affiliation.Foundation staff attorneys filed the brief with the NLRB in a case involving Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh/Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 38061 union organizers' attempt to unionize professors at Point Park University in Pittsburgh and ultimately force the professors to pay union dues.

Pro-Right to Work Employees File Formal Comments with Indiana Department of Labor

Indianapolis, IN (July 11, 2012) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, two Indiana workers filed formal comments with the Indiana Department of Labor (DOL) in support of their newly-enacted Right to Work freedoms as the agency drafts regulations for the enforcement of the law.Douglas Richards, an employee with Goshen-based Cequent Towing Products and David Brubaker, who works for Georgia Pacific, filed their comments this morning.Both Richards's and Brubaker's workplaces are unionized by the United Steel Workers (USW) union hierarchy. Both workers have refrained from union membership. However, they are still forced to accept USW union officials' so-called "representation," and are required to pay dues to the union as a condition of employment, until their employers' old contracts with the union expire.