Employees Slap Teamster Bosses with Federal Charges for Blocking Their Attempt to Stop Paying Full Union Dues
Jackson, MI (October 28, 2009) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, three local employees have filed unfair labor practice charges against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 164 union for obstructing their attempts to opt-out of forced union dues.
Michael Vetrovec, Robert Harris, and Larry Kunk are employed by Perfection Associates L.L.C. in Jackson, Michigan. All three employees object to Teamster membership and attempted to opt-out of paying full union dues.
Because Michigan lacks a Right to Work law, employees can be forced to pay certain union dues as a condition of employment. But the Foundation-won Supreme Court decision Communication Workers v. Beck guarantees the right of workers to opt-out of forced dues intended for purposes other than workplace bargaining, including lobbying, political activism, and members-only activities.
However, Teamsters officials have not stopped collecting forced dues from Vetrovec, Harris, and Kunk earmarked for non-chargeable activities. Union officials have also failed to provide them with an independently audited breakdown of union expenditures, which is required by law to ensure that workers are not being compelled to pay for objectionable activities.
Moreover, union officials told Vetrovec that he would have to sign another check-off form authorizing the automatic payroll deduction of union dues if he wanted to opt-out of dues unrelated to collective bargaining. Previous Foundation-won precedents have also established that non-members cannot be required to authorize automatic dues deduction.
The charges will now be investigated by the National Labor Relations Board.
“While we’re confident that this dispute will be resolved in favor of the workers, no one should have to file federal charges just to keep their hard-earned salary from being diverted to fund a union’s radical politics,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The best way to end this type of abuse would be for Michigan to adopt a Right to Work law, making the payment of union dues strictly voluntary.”
Fact Sheet: Families Benefit from Right to Work Laws
The National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR) has released a telling study comparing Right to Work states with forced-unionism states in a variety of statistical categories. The statistics, provided by various governmental departments and agencies as well as respected non-profits, show the stunning economic and personal benefits families enjoy from their states’ popular Right to Work laws.
The last five years of available data shows that workers in Right to Work states not only enjoy higher non-farm private-sector job growth (9.1% versus 3.6% from 2003-2008), but their real personal incomes are also growing faster (15.8% vs. 9.1% from 2003-2008) and they enjoy a higher disposable income ($34,878 vs. $32,811 in 2008) than their counterparts in forced unionism states.
Families in Right to Work states also benefit from lower taxes and are more likely to buy a home, send their children to college, and gain private, employment-based health insurance for parents and children alike.
While Right to Work is about employee freedom in the workplace, NILRR‘s analysis shows that rolling back coercive union power has undeniable economic benefits as well.
To view the full details of NILRR‘s report entitled "Right to Work States Benefit From Faster Growth, Higher Real Purchasing Power — 2009 Update," click here.
NRTW In the News: Forced Unionism Radical Craig Becker Dangerous to Workers’ Rights
Today, President Barack Obama’s nomination of pro-compulsory unionism radical Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is scheduled to be taken up in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
National Right to Work President Mark Mix warns in today’s Washington Times of the grave dangers Becker’s possible confirmation will pose to workers’ rights:
When the union bosses have the NLRB in their fold, workers who try to exercise their legal rights to dismiss unwanted union monopoly bargaining agents – or even to stop their forced dues from being used to elect handpicked Big Labor candidates – are denied even the most basic protections.
That’s why, especially considering Mr. Becker’s record, it’s not a stretch to believe that – should he be confirmed by the U.S. Senate – Mr. Becker wouldn’t think twice about rubber-stamping even the most abusive forced unionism schemes cooked up by union militants.
In fact, as a former AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) lawyer, Mr. Becker is solely responsible for forcing tens of thousands of workers under union boss control.
In one case, reports from a Los Angeles SEIU local union revealed that almost 63,000 people rejected membership in the union in 2007, but thanks to Mr. Becker, were still forced to pay dues.
And Mr. Becker’s own words explain why. He was even so bold as to say unions were "formed to escape the evils of individualism and individual competition … their actions necessarily involve coercion."
With that kind of anything-goes attitude, it’s no surprise Mr. Becker supports "home visits," in which union militants repeatedly harass workers at home until they sign union-authorization cards, and even advocates letting Mr. Obama’s handpicked arbiters impose contracts on workers, without even allowing the workers to vote on their own contract.
In fact, Mr. Becker is so extreme he actually believes the only choice workers should have is which union they should be forced to join and pay dues to!
In Mr. Becker’s view, if an independent worker refuses to pick, he and the rest of Big Labor’s lackeys on the NLRB should be able to choose a union for that worker. This kind of Big Labor kowtowing is not only outrageous, but it’s also dangerous.
To read all of Mark Mix’s op-ed in the Washington Times click here.
Fox Business Video: Why Union Bosses Are Pushing for Government-Run Health Care
Right to Work President Mark Mix appeared on Fox Business yesterday to explain Big Labor’s supposed opposition to the Baucus health care plan. The reality is union bosses are quietly licking their chops, because every pending proposal would hand them billions of taxpayer dollars and grease the skids for the forced unionization of the health care field:
Sickening Blagojevich Legacy Ready to Metastasize to Rest of Country
The alarming trend of politicians forcing workers into union ranks continues in Illinois as Governor Pat Quinn — in order to win Big Labor’s political support — is resurrecting the sordid legacy of disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich (and Gray Davis of California) subverting workers’ rights to benefit forced dues-hungry union bosses.
Quinn recently signed an executive order arbitrarily reclassifying state-reimbursed in-home health-care providers as state employees — thereby opening them up to forced unionism under state law. Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union organizers, armed by the state with the addresses of Illinois’s nearly 3,500 in-home health-care providers, are competing to corral home health-care providers into compulsory union membership by going door-to-door to solicit support for their respective unions.
Pam Harris, a mother who stays home to take care of her son with special needs, was visited by two aggressive out-of-state SEIU organizers at her front door. Understandably, Ms. Harris is worried that the Detroit-style labor relations that destroyed America’s auto industry could also destroy her right to care for her son as she wants. (To say nothing of the union dues she will be forced to pay for the «privilege.»)
Because she does not live in a state with Right to Work protections, if SEIU union bosses are successful in corralling all home health-care providers into forced dues membership, Ms. Harris will be forced to pay tribute to union bosses just to continue to take care of her own son — even if she refrains from formal union membership.
However, as many Freedom@Work readers may already be aware, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Just last month, National Right to Work President Mark Mix reiterated in the Wall Street Journal NRTW’s previous warnings that union bosses are working to unionize the health-care industry and that under Obamacare, the very thing that is happening in Illinois will happen nationwide:
Following [the Davis/Blagojevich] playbook, pending government-run health care bills create a "personal care attendants workforce advisory panel" that will likely impose union affiliation on hundreds of thousands of folks like Ms. Harris to qualify for a newly created "community living assistance services and support (CLASS)" reimbursement plan.
Ms. Sebelius will be taking her marching orders from the numerous union officials who are guaranteed seats on the various federal panels (such as the personal care panel mentioned above) charged with recommending health-care policies. Big Labor will play a central role in directing federal health-care policy…
Wall Street Journal Warns of «ACORN’s Ally at the NLRB»
Though it doesn’t get nearly as much attention as other high-profile appointments, President Obama has recently nominated several new members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency which oversees private sector labor relations and the federal policy of forced unionism.
These appointments have far-reaching implications for employee freedom, so it’s important that NLRB nominees are thoroughly vetted before they take office.
Unfortunately, Obama’s latest choice for the NLRB, Craig Becker, has radical views on the extent of union coercive power, and he comes directly out of the all-powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) whose bosses have been as thick as thieves with the notoriously corrupt Big Labor front group ACORN. Here’s The Wall Street Journal on Becker’s troubling history and his role in drafting Obama executive orders while on the SEIU union payroll:
One of Big Labor’s priorities in Washington is to place allies in key government jobs where they can overturn existing labor policy without battles in Congress. This is a very good reason for the Senate to hold a hearing on the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Mr. Becker is associate general counsel at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is most recently in the news for its close ties to Acorn, the disgraced housing shakedown operation. President Obama nominated Mr. Becker in April to the five-member NLRB, which has the critical job of supervising union elections, investigating labor practices, and interpreting the National Labor Relations Act. In a 1993 Minnesota Law Review article, written when he was a UCLA professor, Mr. Becker argued for rewriting current union-election rules in favor of labor. And he suggested the NLRB could do this by regulatory fiat, without a vote of Congress.
Read the whole thing here. As a member of the NLRB, Becker will be in a position to rewrite American labor law and achieve his stated goals of marginalizing employees from the process of deciding whether they are unionized. Allies of worker freedom should be extremely concerned about this nomination.
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Previous Foundation coverage of Becker’s radical views can be found here, here and here.
Release: Nonunion Worker Challenges San Diego’s Discriminatory School Construction Scheme
Nonunion Worker Challenges San Diego’s Discriminatory School Construction Scheme
Right to Work attorneys argue pact between San Diego school district and
union officials intends to illegally coerce workers into union ranks
San Diego, CA (October 7, 2009) – National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys today filed federal unfair labor practice charges against local area unions for establishing a discriminatory, union-only construction scheme with the San Diego Unified School District. The agreement enriches union officials, punishes nonunion workers and employers, and sticks taxpayers with the bill.
The discrimination against nonunion construction workers is facilitated by a so-called “Project Labor Agreement” (PLA) – essentially a collective bargaining agreement signed by contractors as a condition of performing work on a government-funded construction project. Arguing that the PLA between the school district and various unions (including the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters and San Diego Building & Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO) illegally discriminates against construction workers who exercise their right to refrain from union membership, Foundation attorneys are defending the interests of the vast majority of construction employees in California who have opted against unionization.
Nonunion Worker Challenges San Diego’s Discriminatory School Construction Scheme
San Diego, CA (October 7, 2009) – National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys today filed federal unfair labor practice charges against local area unions for establishing a discriminatory, union-only construction scheme with the San Diego Unified School District. The agreement enriches union officials, punishes nonunion workers and employers, and sticks taxpayers with the bill.
The discrimination against nonunion construction workers is facilitated by a so-called “Project Labor Agreement” (PLA) – essentially a collective bargaining agreement signed by contractors as a condition of performing work on a government-funded construction project. Arguing that the PLA between the school district and various unions (including the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters and San Diego Building & Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO) illegally discriminates against construction workers who exercise their right to refrain from union membership, Foundation attorneys are defending the interests of the vast majority of construction employees in California who have opted against unionization.
Last November, San Diego voters approved a $2.1 billion school bond, called Proposition S. California law requires that all qualified contractors’ employees complete state-mandated “apprenticeship” programs, but it is illegal under federal law to discriminate against workers or businesses on account of union association. The discriminatory PLA, however, requires workers to go through union-run apprenticeship programs (disqualifying high quality training programs run by employers and other groups), and the subcontracting clause further attempts to coerce even more workers into union ranks.
Foundation attorneys are providing free legal aid to and filing the federal charges for Wesley Fuller, a Brady Company employee who hangs drywall and has completed all state apprenticeship requirements, and all similarly situated employees. But, because Fuller’s particular apprenticeship program was not established through union monopoly bargaining, he is being illegally denied access to employment.
“San Diego residents approved funding for schools, not payoffs to union bosses,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Public agencies owe it to the taxpayers to award contracts to those who will do the best work at the best price, not those who work with bureaucrats to shove a union down their workers’ throats.”
“These union bosses are trying to prevent hard-working, independent-minded employees like Wesley Fuller from providing for their families,” continued Gleason.
The National Labor Relations Board regional director in San Diego will now investigate the charges and determine whether to prosecute the unions before an administrative law judge.
Union Bosses Block Worker’s Attempt to Stop Paying Forced Dues When Resigning from Union Membership
Albion, Nebraska (October 1, 2009) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a local worker has filed unfair labor practice charges against the Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 7476 union for blocking his attempt to stop paying union dues after resigning from union membership.
James Getzfred, an employee of Source Gas, resigned from the union and attempted to revoke authorization for union dues deduction on September 9, 2009. Instead of complying with his request, CWA bosses told Getzfred that he’d have to wait for a union-designated “window period” before he could opt out of union dues.
Nebraska is a Right to Work state, which means workers cannot be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment. Prior Supreme Court precedents have also established that employees have the right to resign from union membership at any time. However, CWA bosses now argue that an obscure legal technicality prevents workers who have resigned from union membership from ending dues payments until they explicitly opt-out during a union-prescribed window period.
Under federal law, this window period requirement can only be enforced if an employee explicitly agrees to it when he or she first authorizes the payroll deduction of union dues. So far, CWA bosses have been unable to produce Getzfred’s original authorization to demonstrate that he agreed to the CWA’s window period.
Moreover, the CWA local’s current dues authorization form includes no language that obligates union members to adhere to a window period if they resign from union membership and wish to stop paying union dues.
Getzfred’s charges seek an immediate end to further forced dues collection and a retroactive reimbursement of union dues from the date of his resignation. The charges also demand that CWA officials notify all Source Gas employees of their right to resign from union membership and stop paying union dues at any time.
“CWA union bosses seem more interested in exploiting rank-and-file workers and extracting union dues than respecting their rights,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “James Getzfred wants nothing to do with this union, but these union bosses are thumbing their noses at Nebraska’s popular, job-creating Right to Work law with the hope of preventing other workers from exercising their rights as well.”
Foundation President on Lars Larson’s National Radio Show: Obamacare Threatens to Expand Forced Unionism
Looking for a comprehensive breakdown of Obamacare’s forced unionism provisions? Check out Foundation President Mark Mix’s interview on the nationally-syndicated Lars Larson Show. Click here to listen or use the embeddable player below:
You can also listen to the Foundation’s podcast via iTunes or manually subscribe to the feed.
