Hudson, OH (February 3, 2010) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, First Student workers in Hudson have successfully stripped Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) Local 791 union officials of their power to force school bus drivers to pay union dues as a condition of employment.

After repeated clashes with OAPSE union brass, Janet Barlow – a driver at First Student – circulated a workplace petition to strip the union of its power to collect forced dues from First Student employees. After collecting signatures from her coworkers, Barlow submitted the petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which then supervised a January 26 election to determine if union officials would be stripped of their extraordinary power to extract forced dues from First Student drivers.

After reviewing the results, the NLRB announced that 41 workers voted in favor of revoking the union’s dues-collecting privileges while only 19 voted against. As a result, OASPE Local 781 union officials are no longer legally allowed to demand mandatory dues payments from First Student employees.

Deauthorization elections aimed at ending union bosses’ dues-collecting privileges are an uphill battle for independent-minded workers. Incumbent union officials enjoy the benefits of workplace access and often company support, while employees must first collect signatures from over 30 percent of their coworkers to trigger a deauthorization vote. Moreover, employees who abstain from voting or miss the election are counted as votes in favor of maintaining a union’s forced dues powers. Although the deck was stacked in favor of forced unionism, Barlow and her coworkers successfully rescinded Local 781’s dues-collecting powers.

The result follows a prolonged legal battle between union officials and Barlow, whose previous attempt to opt out of union dues for politics met with resistance from OAPSE bosses. Prompted by these setbacks, Barlow circulated a deauthorization petition to remove the union’s forced dues privileges.

Barlow previously filed charges with the NLRB against OAPSE officials for discriminating against nonunion workers and failing to notify First Student employees of their rights to resign from union membership. Barlow’s original allegations are still being investigated by the NLRB, but NLRB officials have notified Foundation attorneys that they’ve found merit to Barlow’s charges.

“After enduring workplace discrimination at the hands of OAPSE officials, Janet Barlow and her colleagues finally said enough was enough and removed union bosses’ dues-collecting privileges,” said Patrick Semmens, legal information director of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Although these bus drivers successfully curtailed compulsory unionism in their workplace, employees should not be forced to undertake such an arduous campaign just to get rid of union bosses’ forced dues powers.”

“The real solution is to stop forced unionism before it starts by giving employees the protection of a Right to Work law that makes union membership and dues payment fully voluntary,” concluded Semmens.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in more than 250 cases nationwide per year.