Boca Raton, FL (October 10, 2012) – A local nurse has filed a federal charge against West Boca Medical Center and its parent company for enacting a secret deal that discriminates against the nurses and gives Service Employees International Union (SEIU) operatives preferential access to the facility.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Registered Nurse Jenna Orlando filed the charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Tampa.

According to the charge, SEIU union officials entered into a «neutrality agreement» with West Boca Medical Center and its parent company, Tenet Healthcare Corporation. The agreement successfully greased the skids for the nurses unionization.

However, a tenacious group of nurses are seeking to petition the NLRB for a secret-ballot election to remove the unwanted union. While the so-called neutrality agreement gives SEIU union officials wide-ranging access to employee break rooms, lounges, bulletin boards, and other company facilities, nurses who oppose the union hierarchy are being denied equal access. Tenet even changed workplace procedures to deny off-duty nurses from entering the premises.

Nurses from across the country are challenging neutrality agreements signed by Tenet management. Recently, a group of nurses in McAllen, Texas filed for a decertification election with the NLRB and in July 2012 successfully voted a union out of their hospital. Just last week, two nurses in El Paso filed federal charges against Tenet and the California Nurses Association-affiliated National Nurses Organizing Committee union challenging a similar discriminatory agreement.

«So-called ‘neutrality agreements’ like this one between SEIU union officials and hospital management are hardly neutral: They give union organizers license to browbeat and intimidate workers into acceding to unionization,» said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. «Tag-teamed by union bosses and corporate executives who abandon their employees to gain what will likely be very short term union boss favors, these nurses have been stripped of their rights to organize against forced unionism in their workplace.»

«Medical professionals shouldn’t be subjected to backroom deals that give union operatives preferential treatment at the expense of their workplace rights.»

Longmont Police Officers Hit Police Union, Longmont City Officials with Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit

Right to Work Foundation attorneys help officers challenge union hierarchy for violating their constitutional rights

Denver, CO (October 5, 2012) – Two Longmont city police officers have filed a federal lawsuit against a local Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) union and the city for violating their rights.

Cary Nickolls and James Bundy filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in Denver with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

Click here to read the full release.

Denver, CO (October 5, 2012) – Two Longmont city police officers have filed a federal lawsuit against a local Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) union and the city for violating their rights.

Cary Nickolls and James Bundy filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in Denver with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

Both Nickolls and Bundy refrain from formal union membership in the Longmont Fraternal Order of Police (LFOP) Lodge 6 union, an affiliate of the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, and invoked their right to not pay full union dues.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Foundation’s Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson (1986) case that union officials can collect union fees as a condition of employment, but must first provide nonmember public workers with an independently-audited financial breakdown of all forced-dues union expenditures and the opportunity to object and challenge the amount of forced union fees before an impartial decision maker. This minimal safeguard is designed to ensure that workers have an opportunity to refrain from paying for union boss political activities and lobbying and union member-only events.

LFOP union and city officials demanded forced union fees from the officers even though union officials have continuously refused to provide an audited breakdown of FOP and LFOP union expenditures.

The City is named as a defendant in the lawsuit for its complicity in agreeing to and enforcing the forced dues clause in the monopoly bargaining agreement.

The officers seek refunds of all forced union fees illegally demanded, with interest, and to enjoin future collection of any fees until LFOP union officials comply with the requirements the Supreme Court laid down in Hudson.

«To keep their forced-dues gravy train going, Colorado police union bosses are violating the rights of officers who are sworn to protect the general public,» said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. «Colorado needs to pass Right to Work protections for all its workers to free them from the handcuffs of forced union affiliation and dues payments.»

Providence Memorial Nurses Challenge Corrupt Agreement between California Union and Hospital

Nurses who oppose forced unionization of workplace suffer from viewpoint discrimination

El Paso, TX (October 3, 2012) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, an El Paso nurse filed federal charges against a California-based nurse union and Providence Memorial Hospital for enacting a secret deal that gives union organizers preferential access to the facility.

Nurse Perry Pielaet filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Phoenix.

California Nurses Association-affiliated National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) union officials entered into a «neutrality agreement» with Providence Memorial Hospital and its parent company, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, designed to grease the skids for the nurses’ unionization.

Click here to read the full release.

El Paso, TX (October 3, 2012) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, an El Paso nurse filed federal charges against a California-based nurse union and Providence Memorial Hospital for enacting a secret deal that gives union organizers preferential access to the facility.

Nurse Perry Pielaet filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Phoenix.

California Nurses Association-affiliated National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) union officials entered into a «neutrality agreement» with Providence Memorial Hospital and its parent company, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, designed to grease the skids for the nurses’ unionization.

The agreement gives union organizers wide-ranging access to employee break rooms, lounges, and other company facilities. On the other hand, Tenet is refusing to grant nurses who oppose unionization equal access to its facilities, going so far as to change workplace procedures to deny off-duty nurses access to company facilities.

Despite the company’s blatant viewpoint discrimination, a tenacious group of nurses led by Pielaet are working to educate their fellow nurses about the impact of unionization.

NNOC union officials have pushed hard for «neutrality agreements» with healthcare providers nationwide. Most recently, a group of nurses in McAllen, Texas filed for a decertification election with the NLRB and in July 2012 successfully voted the union out of their hospital.

«So-called ‘neutrality agreements’ like this one between union officials and hospital management are hardly neutral: They give union organizers license to browbeat and intimidate workers into acceding to unionization,» said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. «Caught between union bosses and corporate executives who abandon their employees to gain what will likely be very short term union boss favors, these nurses have been stripped of their rights to organize against forced unionism in their workplace.»

«Medical professionals shouldn’t be subjected to backroom deals that give union operatives preferential treatment at the expense of employees’ workplace rights.»

Restaurant Union Bosses Served Federal Charges

Unite Here union bosses demand servers pay over $5,700 or be fired

Chicago, IL (October 2, 2012) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, two local Riva Restaurant servers have filed federal charges against a local union for violating their rights and demanding that they pay thousands of dollars in back union dues or be fired.

Michael Pastrick and Jaclyn McAllister filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the Unite Here Local 1 union, based in Chicago.

Click here to read the full release.

Chicago, IL (October 2, 2012) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, two local Riva Restaurant servers have filed federal charges against a local union for violating their rights and demanding that they pay thousands of dollars in back union dues or be fired.

Michael Pastrick and Jaclyn McAllister filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the Unite Here Local 1 union, based in Chicago.

Unite Here Local 1 union officials enjoy monopoly bargaining powers over the workplace. As a result, employees can be forced to pay union dues and fees as a condition of employment because Illinois is not a Right to Work state. However, employees cannot be legally compelled to join a union against their will and cannot be compelled to pay union dues used for union politics and member-only events.

Local 1 union officials never informed the workers that they must pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment or of their rights to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership as upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Foundation-won Communications Workers v. Beck case.

Instead, in August 2012, Unite Here Local 1 union officials demanded that the workers pay full union dues dating back to 2006, a total of over $5,700.

Unite Here union officials coerced Pastrick and McAllister with the threat of job termination into signing an illegal «payment plan and waiver» of their rights. The union officials also charged an additional 23 percent «service fee» for paying the dues with a credit card.

«Apparently, intimidation and coercion are today’s special for Unite Here Local 1 union officials,» said Patrick Semmens, Vice President for Public Information of the National Right to Work Foundation. «Illinois desperately needs a Right to Work law making union membership and dues-payment completely voluntary to prevent this type of union boss abuse in the future.»

Twenty-three states have Right to Work protections for employees. Public polling shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans and union members support the Right to Work principle of voluntary unionism.

Workers Challenge Obama Labor Board Recess Appointments in Federal Appeals Court

Attorneys argue purported recess appointments are invalid because Senate was not in recess

Washington, DC (October 1, 2012) – National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed a brief in yet another legal battle over President Barack Obama’s purported «recess appointments» to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Foundation attorneys filed the amicus curiae brief jointly with the Landmark Legal Foundation on Wednesday in the case Noel Canning v. NLRB, pending now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The brief was filed for four workers who are represented by their Foundation attorneys in cases pending before the NLRB.

Click here to read the full release.

Washington, DC (October 1, 2012) – National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed a brief in yet another legal battle over President Barack Obama’s purported «recess appointments» to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Foundation attorneys filed the amicus curiae brief jointly with the Landmark Legal Foundation on Wednesday in the case Noel Canning v. NLRB, pending now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The brief was filed for four workers who are represented by their Foundation attorneys in cases pending before the NLRB.

Another direct legal challenge to the Obama recess appointments is a Foundation case pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. That case is among the first in the nation to reach the appellate courts challenging the Obama recess appointments and may help set the standard for all further challenges

Foundation staff attorneys argue in their briefs in both cases that the recess appointments are unconstitutional because the U.S. Senate was still in session per the body’s rules. Therefore the President could not make the appointments to the NLRB without Senate confirmation.

If Foundation attorneys’ argument that the Obama’s NLRB appointments are unconstitutional prevails, then the Board has only two valid members. The Board would then have lacked a quorum since January 3, 2012 necessary to enact rules or enforce federal labor law under a U.S. Supreme Court precedent established in 2010.

«Barack Obama’s so-called recess appointments to the Labor Board clearly violate the U.S. Constitution,» said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. «Because the Board does not have a legitimate quorum, it must cease handing down rulings in Foundation-supported cases, and all other cases, until a legitimate quorum is established.»

U.S. Supreme Court Fails to Correct Dangerous Union Exemption from State Identity Theft Laws

Resort workers get caught in union membership Twilight Zone

Washington, DC (October 1, 2012) – Today, the U. S. Supreme Court denied a petition to hear a case brought by North Carolina-based AT&T (NYSE: T) employees asking the Court to review two state court decisions regarding a state identity theft law and federal preemption.

The workers appealed the case to the Supreme Court with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

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 the public, had exercised their freedom under the state’s Right to Work law to resign from CWA union membership and cease paying union dues.

Click here to read the full release.