DEFIANCE, Ohio (August 8, 2001) – A Diehl, Inc. employee today filed federal charges against a local affiliate of the Teamsters union for engaging in a campaign of obstruction designed to prevent employees from exercising their right to reclaim forced union dues spent for politics and other non-bargaining activities.

With free legal help provided by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys, Donald Manis, an employee at Diehl’s evaporated milk plant, filed the unfair labor practice charges against the Teamsters Local 908 union with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on behalf of all similarly situated coworkers.

«Teamsters union bosses devised this scheme to thwart employees’ objections to funding the union’s ideological agenda,» said Randy Wanke, Director of Legal Information for the National Right to Work Foundation.

Earlier this year, Teamsters officials entered into a collective bargaining agreement with Diehl that required all employees to pay forced union dues as a condition of employment. Last month, union officials demanded that Manis, along with other employees who objected to paying full union dues, also pay six months of back dues. Under the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court CWA v. Beck decision, employees may object to paying union dues for activities unrelated to collective bargaining, like politics and organizing.

Union officials demanded the forced dues despite the fact that they had failed, as required by the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson decision, to provide employees with an independent audit breaking down union expenditures. Secretive Local 908 officials also unlawfully required employees to send multiple objection letters before being allowed their right to review the union’s finances.

Foundation attorneys are demanding that union officials return any illegally seized forced union dues, provide proper financial disclosure, and halt their practice of forcing objecting employees to go through an excessive bureaucratic process before being able to exercise their rights.

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.