San Diego, Calif. (January 26, 2005) – The California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) has ordered San Diego government union officials to “cease and desist” discriminating against non-union employees by withholding benefits.

The dental and eye-care benefits scheme, part of a “Memorandum of Understanding” between the San Diego Municipal Employees Association (MEA) union and the City, was designed to pressure employees into signing up as formal union members, thereby causing them to give up certain rights, including the ability to refrain from funding union political activities.

The case originated in March 2002, when police criminalist Tanya DuLaney, with free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys, filed a formal charge with the PERB challenging the legality of the discriminatory policy.

Union officials told DuLaney that she was ineligible to receive the city-funded benefits unless she joined the union. Not wanting to waive her constitutional rights in order to enroll in a benefits plan paid for by the city, DuLaney filed the unfair labor practice charges.

“Rather than look after employees’ interests, MEA union officials withheld workers’ benefits to force them into union ranks,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Without this type of coercion, union officials know that many employees have little use for the union and would therefore resign and withhold financial support.”

The PERB agreed with Foundation attorneys’ arguments and ruled that denying the benefit opportunity was an “adverse action” discriminating against non-union employees. The Board additionally recognized that DuLaney was engaging in a “protected activity” of exercising her right not to join a union, and that union officials violated their own duty to represent fairly the interests of all employees.

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.