Dayton, OH (January 9, 2006) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys, a United Parcel Service (UPS) employee has filed federal charges against a Teamsters local for violating the constitutional rights of workers who have refrained from formal union membership.

Rick Ford filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 9 office in Cincinnati, after Teamsters Local 957 officials improperly deducted forced union dues from Ford’s paychecks without giving him a proper independent breakdown of how his forced union dues are spent. Because Ford has exercised his right to refrain from formal union membership, by law he can only be required to pay the portion of dues that union officials can demonstrate is used for collective bargaining. Ford filed the charges for all similarly situated UPS workers.

“Teamsters union officials are blatantly defying the law in order to stuff their political coffers with even more forced dues,” said Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason. “Union officials are adding insult to injury by forcing non-member workers to foot the bill for their pet political causes when the workers are already forced to pay for monopoly bargaining representation that they may not even want.”

In the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court decision Communications Workers v. Beck, the Court affirmed that workers have the right to resign from formal union membership and halt and reclaim the portion of forced union dues spent on activities unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union politics. Employees also have the right to have an independent third party audit the union expenditures and certify that the percentage of dues that non-members are forced to pay does not include political spending and other non-collective bargaining expenses.

In Ford’s case, Teamsters’ union officials are forcing non-member employees to pay fees at the extraordinary rate of 91.85% of full member dues, and they are doing so without a proper accounting and without providing an adequate process through which non-members can challenge the amount.

The NLRB Regional Director in Cincinnati will now investigate and decide whether to issue a formal complaint against the union.

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 more than 250 cases nationwide per year.