Nurses Challenging Forced Unionization Deal by Union Organizers and Company Management

Union organizers’ intimidation sways outcome of unionization election

Massillon, OH (September 10, 2012) – Two local Affinity Medical Center nurses are seeking to overturn a union certification election after experiencing union intimidation that tainted the results.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Affinity nurses Susan Kelley and Cinda Keener filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) a motion to intervene in the election proceedings in their workplace.

National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) union organizers and Affinity Medical Center management entered into a «neutrality agreement» that gave union organizers preferential access to the facility helping them to impose monopoly bargaining on the nurses. Company and union officials refuse to disclose the terms of the secret agreement despite requests from the nurses

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California Nurse Union Booted Out of McAllen, TX Hospital

Worker advocate thwarts union boss scheme to coercively interrogate independent-minded nurse

McAllen, TX (September 10, 2012) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Legal Foundation staff attorneys, a group of McAllen nurses have succeeded in removing a California-based union from their workplace.

About two years ago, National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) union officials entered into a «neutrality agreement» with Rio Grande Regional Hospital and its parent company, HCA Holdings, designed to grease the skids for the nurses’ unionization. Such agreements give union organizers access to workers in the workplace, workers’ home addresses and other personal information, and impose gag rules on what company managers can say about the union.

NNOC union bosses unionized the nurses after conducting a stealth organizing campaign under the neutrality agreement. But a tenacious group of nurses led by Victoria Lynn Glass, RN, filed for a decertification election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and in July 2012 successfully voted the union out of their hospital by a tally of 156-128.

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Teacher Files State Complaints After Union Bosses Violate Act 10, U.S. Constitution

Case shows why Act 10 is needed to protect state workers

Madison, WI (September 21, 2012) – A former Greenwood, Wisconsin teacher has filed complaints against a local teacher union for illegally refusing to honor her right under the state law commonly referred to as «Act 10» to refrain from union dues payments, and for refusing to follow constitutional disclosure requirements.

Amy Anaya filed the complaint with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

Anaya was a School District of Greenwood teacher for a year, beginning in August 2011, after Act 10 became effective. In September 2011, Greenwood Education Association (GEA) union officials approached Anaya and illegally told her that she «had to» sign the union’s membership form. Anaya informed them that she had no desire to become a member of the union.

Click here to read the full release.

Massillon, OH (September 10, 2012) – Two local Affinity Medical Center nurses are seeking to overturn a union certification election after experiencing union intimidation that tainted the results.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Affinity nurses Susan Kelley and Cinda Keener filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) a motion to intervene in the election proceedings in their workplace.

National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) union organizers and Affinity Medical Center management entered into a «neutrality agreement» that gave union organizers preferential access to the facility helping them to impose monopoly bargaining on the nurses. Company and union officials refuse to disclose the terms of the secret agreement despite requests from the nurses

Additionally, non-employee union organizers stalked, reported on, and attempted to get company management to retaliate against nurses who exercised their rights to oppose the unionization of their workplace.

Although the exact terms of this secret deal are unknown, neutrality agreements between union and company officials often grant union organizers wide-ranging access to employee break rooms, lounges, and other company facilities in exchange for contract concessions or to prevent union-boss instigated protests against the company. Moreover, company supervisors are often gagged from discussing unionization with concerned employees.

The two nurses point out that the secret deal between Affinity and NNOC union officials, combined with the intimidation of nurses who spoke out against unionization, likely affected the outcome of the union organizing vote. Witnesses report that the NNOC union was granted monopoly bargaining powers over the workers by a single vote.

«Caught between union bosses and corporate executives, these nurses have been stripped of their rights to oppose forced unionism in their workplace,» said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. «Medical professionals shouldn’t be subjected to backroom deals that give union operatives preferential treatment at the expense of employees’ workplace rights.»

«Upholding this process would make a sham out of federal labor law, which is supposed to protect workers,» added Mix. «The NLRB should give these nurses a say in what is going on in their workplace.»

McAllen, TX (September 10, 2012) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Legal Foundation staff attorneys, a group of McAllen nurses have succeeded in removing a California-based union from their workplace.

About two years ago, National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) union officials entered into a «neutrality agreement» with Rio Grande Regional Hospital and its parent company, HCA Holdings, designed to grease the skids for the nurses’ unionization. Such agreements give union organizers access to workers in the workplace, workers’ home addresses and other personal information, and impose gag rules on what company managers can say about the union.

NNOC union bosses unionized the nurses after conducting a stealth organizing campaign under the neutrality agreement. But a tenacious group of nurses led by Victoria Lynn Glass, RN, filed for a decertification election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and in July 2012 successfully voted the union out of their hospital by a tally of 156-128.

NNOC bosses filed «objections» to the election with the NLRB. However, rather than litigate their objections publicly under NLRB election rules, the union bosses simultaneously invoked a private «arbitration» procedure created by the HCA-NNOC pact and held a «hearing» on the objections before an «arbitrator» handpicked by union officials and the company.

Making a further mockery of the NLRB’s election rules, NNOC union officials subpoenaed Glass to appear and testify under oath about the campaign to remove the union from her workplace. She was also directed to produce for union inspection all documents that the nurses created in their election campaign to oppose the NNOC union bosses.

In response, Foundation staff attorneys filed federal charges against NNOC and Rio Grande/HCA challenging the crude attempt to coercively interrogate Glass about her legally protected activities. Due to her representation by Foundation attorneys, Glass neither testified in the union-boss «arbitration» hearing nor produced a single document demanded by the union.

On September 6, 2012, NNOC union officials were forced to drop their objections to the nurses’ decertification election and the NLRB Region in Texas certified the vote.

«So-called ‘neutrality agreements’ like this one between union officials and hospital management give union bosses license to browbeat and intimidate workers into acceding to unionization,» said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. «These nurses endured union boss harassment and kangaroo courts to ultimately exercise their right to remove the unwanted union from their workplace.»

Johnsonburg, PA (September 14, 2012) – A Johnsonburg Clarion Sintered Metals worker’s federal charge against a Machinist union local has forced union officials to stop threatening workers who want to exercise their right to refrain from formal union membership.

Christina Wilson filed the federal unfair labor practice charge against International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 2448 with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation.

IAM Local 2448 union officials enjoy monopoly bargaining privileges over Wilson’s workplace. Because Pennsylvania does not have a Right to Work law, workers can be forced to pay union dues or fees to keep their jobs. However, the U.S. Supreme Court held in the Foundation’s Communications Workers of America v. Beck case that workers cannot be compelled to pay for union political activities, lobbying, and member-only events.

Additionally, union officials are required to provide an independently-audited breakdown of union expenditures to make it less difficult for workers to hold union bosses accountable for their spending.

IAM Local 2448 union officials demanded that Wilson and other nonmember workers who timely resigned from membership before the contract went into effect pay an initiation fee and threatened that if they did not pay, they would be fired. IAM union officials also have not followed the federal disclosure requirements.

Union officials finally backed down after Wilson filed the federal charge with the NLRB.

«Christiana Wilson had to take the courageous step to file a federal charge to stop local Machinist union bosses from illegally threatening to fire workers who had the temerity to exercise their right to refrain from union membership,» said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. «Pennsylvania desperately needs a Right to Work law to prevent these types of forced unionism abuses from occurring in the future.»

Twenty-three states have Right to Work protections for their workers upholding the principle of voluntary union affiliation.

Madison, WI (September 21, 2012) – A former Greenwood, Wisconsin teacher has filed complaints against a local teacher union for illegally refusing to honor her right under the state law commonly referred to as «Act 10» to refrain from union dues payments, and for refusing to follow constitutional disclosure requirements.

Amy Anaya filed the complaint with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

Anaya was a School District of Greenwood teacher for a year, beginning in August 2011, after Act 10 became effective. In September 2011, Greenwood Education Association (GEA) union officials approached Anaya and illegally told her that she «had to» sign the union’s membership form. Anaya informed them that she had no desire to become a member of the union.

In December 2011, GEA union officials again demanded that Anaya join the union, and Anaya again informed them that she was not interested in joining.

Under Wisconsin’s Act 10 public-sector unionism reforms, Anaya, as a nonmember, had the right to refrain from paying any union dues or fees as a condition of her employment.

Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court has long held that a worker has a First Amendment right to refrain from formal union membership at any time. Additionally, any worker who refrains from union membership cannot be required to pay union dues spent for union activities like political activism, lobbying, and member-only events. Nonmember workers are entitled to an independently-audited breakdown of union expenditures and the chance to challenge any forced dues or fees before an impartial third party.

Despite Act 10 and the union’s failure to provide these constitutional protections, the school district deducted full union dues from Anaya’s paychecks for the whole year, totaling to about $750.

«Teacher union bosses and school officials ignored state law and U.S. Supreme Court precedent to illegally coerce this teacher into full-dues-paying union ranks against her will,» said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. «This case underscores just how important Act 10 is in protecting Wisconsin public employees from forced unionism abuses such as this.»

«No worker should ever be forced to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment,» added Mix.

Mickey Mouse Union Faces Federal Charges for Illegally Threatening Workers’ Jobs

Resort workers get caught in union membership Twilight Zone

Anaheim, CA (September 25, 2012) – With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, two Disneyland Resort Grand California Hotel employees have filed federal charges against a local union for violating their rights.

Jose Luis Sanchez and Liz Abdul-Nour filed federal charges against the UNITE HERE Local 11 union with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Los Angeles.

Click here to read the full release.

Monday, a National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney argued for three Wisconsin public employees who are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (located in Chicago) to uphold all of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s public-sector unionism reform measures, known as "Act 10."

The case is on appeal after a federal circuit court judge in Wisconsin struck down Wisconsin’s new union recertification requirements and ban on the use of taxpayer funded-payroll systems to collect union dues from general employees’ paychecks, and excluded the three workers from participating fully in the case.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, Pleasant Prairie teacher Kristi Lacroix, Waukesha high school teacher Nathan Berish, and trust fund specialist at the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds Ricardo Cruz filed a motion to intervene in the lower court. When their motion to intervene was denied, the employees appealed and were given a portion of the argument time in Monday’s appeals court argument.

The three workers are asking the appellate court to uphold the law as a whole as constitutional especially the law’s Right to Work protections — relying on Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court precedents in which the Court held that union bosses have no constitutional right to collect fees from nonmembers and that unions have no constitutional right to use government resources to deduct dues from workers’ paychecks.

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.