Port Jervis, NY (December 16, 2004) – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in New York has issued a formal complaint against the Security Police Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA) union for unlawfully refusing to adequately detail the union’s expenditures, and subsequently threatening to have a local worker fired for refusing to pay full union dues. The NLRB Region 2 Director scheduled a hearing to prosecute the union after union officials failed to live up to an earlier promise to end related unfair labor practices.

With the help of National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys, Richard Grogan, a local security guard, alleges that SPFPA union officials failed to provide him with an independent audit of union expenditures as required by law, and that a union official illegally threatened him with termination for failure to allow the seizure of full union dues from his paycheck.

Richard Grogan originally filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB against the SPFPA union in April 2004. While the charges were initially dropped by NLRB Region 2, they have now been re-instituted due to SPFPA officials’ refusal to honor the promise they made to NLRB Region 2.

An employee of Orange Regional Medical Center, Grogan notified union officials that he wished to resign his membership and objected to paying any dues or fees for nonrepresentational activities in December 2003. Since then, union officials have denied Grogan his right not to subsidize union politics by failing to provide a legally mandated independent audit of union expenditures.

“Union officials want workers like these to simply shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Rather than respect the rights of workers they claim to represent, union officials are bullying workers to pay for their political electioneering.”

The actions of the union hierarchy violated employee rights recognized under the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court Communications Workers v. Beck decision. Under Beck and subsequent NLRB rulings, union officials must inform employees of their right to refrain from formal union membership and their right not to be forced to pay for costs unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activity.

NLRB Region 2 has now scheduled a February 22, 2005, hearing date to prosecute the SPFPA union for its unlawful practices.

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.