Last week, National Right to Work Foundation attorneys filed recusal motions asking Craig Becker, President Barack Obama’s recess appointee to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), to remove himself from any pending cases involving Foundation attorneys based on his personal bias and malice toward the organization, as revealed by his published writings about the Foundation. Let’s take a closer look.

In a 2005 article in the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, Becker described the Foundation as "an organization that purports to represent employees…."

Only the most rabid and unthinking forced unionism militant can’t see indisputable evidence that Foundation attorneys only provide free legal aid to workers. As the Washington Examiner’s Mark Hemingway notes in a column about Becker’s bias,

Unions try and portray the organization as a shill for big business, but the fact is that National Right to Work is the only organization providing free legal aid to workers with grievances against their union, and is otherwise responsible for doing a lot to keep unions in check.

Currently, Foundation attorneys are assisting thousands of employees in over 200 cases nationwide. The Foundation’s legal aid program is designed to enforce employees’ existing legal rights against forced unionism abuses and to win new legal precedents expanding these rights and protections.  Here’s a sample:

• Last month, Foundation attorneys filed unfair labor practice charges on behalf of Nestor Mendez, a former Vons grocery store worker who was wrongfully fired on December 14, 2009 at the request of local UFCW union officials.  Mendez seeks financial compensation for lost wages and reinstatement of his position.
• In 2001, with help from Foundation attorneys, Rod Carter received a monetary settlement from Teamsters Local 769 for its direct involvement in a bloody attack on Carter during a nationwide strike against UPS. 
• Foundation attorneys are at the forefront in protecting religious objectors’ rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  In one case, a Ohio Education Association union official told a 21-year veteran teacher to "change religions" if she wanted a religious accommodation.
• Last year Foundation attorneys helped secure a settlement for five Phoenix-based employees who filed a federal lawsuit against their employer and IBEW Local 1269 union officials for a corrupt scheme to divert sales commissions from the employees to union officials. Some of the methods used to increase the union agents’ compensation included giving union agents “double commissions” for sales made by other workers.

Why else but malice would Craig Becker write that the National Right to Work Foundation “purports to represent employees”? Foundation attorneys do not just claim to provide free legal aid to workers. They do it on a daily basis.

The undercurrent of Craig Becker’s agenda is that individual employees are irrelevant in the workplace and should be afforded no recourse against the union operatives who violate their rights.  The Right to Work principle makes no judgment on whether workers should join or support a union for whatever reason. That is a decision best left up to the individual.  The Right to Work principle is therefore not "anti-union" but anti-compulsory unionism and pro-freedom of choice. Freedom of association is a basic right, but today’s unions operate via forced association. 

It’s worth noting that the Foundation is entirely supported by voluntary contributions from individuals, foundations, and job providers — unlike unions, which rely on using the power of the state to seize money straight out of unwilling workers’ paychecks.  In fact, Foundation supporters come from all walks of life, sections of the country, and social backgrounds.  The vast majority of Foundation contributors — tens of thousands of concerned citizens — give $100 or less each year.  

There’s nothing remotely "fringe" about our principle, and that’s why 22 states have adopted Right to Work laws and nearly 80% of the American people agree that no worker should ever be forced to associate with a union to get or keep a job.

If you do want to find fringe views on labor law, look no further than Craig Becker himself.  "At first blush it might seem fair to give workers the choice to remain unrepresented," Becker wrote in a 1998 New Labor Forum article.  Sorry, Member Becker: it’s always fair to give workers a choice no matter how many ways you look at it.