Seven Employees Force Settlement with Teamster Local Union Brass

Right to Work Attorneys help employees after union officials levy more than $200,000 in confiscatory fines

Chicago, IL (May 29, 2009) – With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, seven employees who refused to abandon their jobs during a strike forced a settlement with a local union after union officials levied exorbitant and illegal retaliatory fines against them.

The employees, truck drivers for industrial laundry company Lechner and Sons, filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Teamsters Local Union 731, an affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, after Local 731 union officials hit the employees with fines ranging from $13,946 to $40,000 each for not abandoning their jobs during a strike. None of the employees were truly voluntary members of the union during the strike.

In July 2006, Local 731 union bosses ordered the employees to abandon their jobs during a so-called “sympathy strike” involving a different bargaining unit of workers at the plant where the strike occurred. After the strike ended in June 2007, union brass claimed the power to use fines to discipline non-striking employees.

(Continue reading this news release…)

(Click here to see a copy of a Teamsters Local 731 strike fines notice in which Teamster union bosses claimed the power to use $40,000 worth of fines to discipline one of the non-striking employees.)

Thursday’s Detroit News extensively quotes National Right to Work president Mark Mix in an informative piece about why Michigan needs a Right to Work law.

Right to Work protections in 22 states ensure that no worker can be compelled, as a condition or employment, to join or pay dues to an unwanted union.

The militant United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which is notorious for launching intimidating card check organizing campaigns and whose unions bosses frequently whine about Right to Work, is particularly dominant in Michigan, where its forced unionism relationship with the "Big Three" automakers in Detroit has been a major cause in Michigan’s economic depression (and yet, the Obama Administration is rewarding UAW union brass with a majority stake in Chrysler).

But as Mix tells the Detroit News, the struggle for employee freedom in Michigan won’t be easy even though the forced unionism economic devastion is so patently obvious:

Mix, nonetheless, remains optimistic. He said interest is picking up in all the Rust Belt states because workers are wondering if what they’ve been promised is really going to happen or if their benefits will even be held intact. The Chrysler bankruptcy and soon to be GM filing has raised some union worker eyebrows, he said.

Of course, Michigan isn’t likely to become the 23rd state to change its ways, but that doesn’t stop Mix and his colleagues from answering worker phone calls.

"There is hope," Mix said. "Freedom in the workplace always wins — even in Michigan."

Click here to read the rest of the article.

The National Right to Work Foundation is just the place to get the latest developments on the fight against compulsory unionism.  There are several ways to learn about the daily developments in America’s Right to Work movement:

• Get the News – Check out Foundation’s News & Press section to be informed on the legal challenges workers face and the Foundation’s frequent legal victories.  Also check out the media’s coverage about some of the Foundation’s efforts on our Delicious bookmarks webpage.

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• Listen – Hear the voices of the Right to Work movement delve into a broad range of topics on workplace freedom with the National Right to Work podcast. In our latest podcast, the National Right to Work Committee’s Greg Mourad sits down with WCHS radio hosts Michael Agnello and Rick Johnson to discuss card check’s legislative prospects.  You can also listen to the Foundation’s podcast via iTunes or manually subscribe to the feed.

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• Subscribe to our Newsletter – Read the latest edition of the National Right to Work Foundation’s newsletter, Foundation Action.  Foundation Action is a great resource to learn about the Foundation’s groundbreaking efforts in the courts.  Sign up for your free subscription today. Subscribers will receive a hard copy in their mailbox every two months.

• Read a Book – Receive a free book from the Foundation. In Stranglehold: How union bosses have hijacked our government, Reed Larson reveals the astonishing story of how Big Labor acquired incredible power over local, state, and national government in America and how the very existence of our democratic institutions are under siege as a result. In Union Dues and Religious Do Nots, Foundation attorney Bruce Cameron provides a how-to guide to employees with strong religious convictions who want to exercise their right to refrain from formal, dues-paying union membership if they morally object to the union bosses’ political agenda. Get your free copy here today.

And of course, continue to log on to the Freedom@Work blog, the best place to get the scoop on the battle against forced unionism.

In recent weeks, President Barack Obama nominated AFL-CIO and SEIU union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the quasi-judicial agency that administers federal labor law. Some of the Board’s most important functions include overseeing the secret ballot elections in union certification drives and resolving unfair labor practices committed by union organizers.

But Becker’s employment history and published writings indicate his extreme hostility to both the secret ballot and true employee free choice. As a member of the NLRB, Becker would likely rubber stamp the most abusive forced unionism schemes cooked up by union militants to compel independent-minded American workers to accept their "representation" and pay dues.

In this special video report hosted at the National Right to Work Committee’s website, Committee President Mark Mix analyzes Becker’s extreme views.  Becker:

• Supports "home visits," in which union goons repeatedly harass workers at home until they sign union authorization cards (see here for an example of this intimidating practice)
• Advocates letting government arbiters impose contracts on workers and employers on workers, without even allowing the workers to vote on the contract (a practice which even Far Left icon George McGovern opposes)
• Believes employers should be absolutely prohibited from sharing any truthful and noncoercive information with employees about the effects of unionization
• Illogically and radically compares union certification elections to US Congressional elections, stating that the only question decided in such elections should be which union gets monopoly control over workers, not whether they wish to remain independent and union free.

Watch the full video below to learn more.

For more on Becker’s nomination and radical forced unionism views, read this Wall Street Journal editorial. To download the National Right to Work Committee’s Becker Alert, click here.

On Thursday, National Right to Work Foundation attorneys asked the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) General Counsel to reinstate federal charges challenging a common and illegal union tactic in the entertainment industry.

Foundation attorneys are helping an independent contractor who occasionally works as a "daily hire" for ABC.

The monopoly bargaining contract between the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) union and ABC contains a forced-unionism clause mandating that "daily hires" join the union or pay so-called agency dues to the union "after twenty (20) days of employment in one year or thirty (30) days employment in two consecutive years."

But the National Labor Relations Act clearly states that union officials may only begin compelling the payment of dues after thirty days of actual employment, a so-called "grace period" from the unjust practice. But Brain Johnson, the independent contractor who filed the unfair labor practices charges, has never worked close to 30 days consecutively and is in fact a "daily hire" for the entertainment company.

As Foundation attorney W. James Young explains in the letter of appeal, NLRB precedent indicates that "an employee has a right to a new grace period when an employer rehired him unless the employee was delinquent in dues when previously employed by that employer." Because Johnson had never surpassed 30 days of employment with ABC, he could never have been delinquent, and thus the NABET union cannot force him to pay dues.

But the NLRB’s Regional Director in New York refused to prosecute the union for misrepresenting his rights and obligations under federal labor law. Amazingly, the Regional Director even ignored NLRB precedent from her own region that held a similar forced-dues clause facially invalid.

Young urges the NLRB’s General Counsel to reverse the Regional Director’s outrageous and desperate attempt to back the union position in this case, sidestepping the core, and potentially far-sweeping issue in the case.

Click here to read the full text of the letter of appeal.