Uniontown, Pa. (February 27, 2004) — Responding to unfair labor practice charges brought by a Uniontown hospital employee, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will prosecute Teamsters Union Local 491 for unlawful threats and coercion directed against dissenting employees.

Receiving free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Patricia Demaske filed the original charges in August 2001 against union officials for unlawfully threatening employees with termination for failure to pay full union dues, mandating employees sign dues check-off authorizations, and failing to provide workers with an independent audit of union expenditures. The NLRB has set a trial date of April 27, 2004.

“Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. As union officials are frantic to amass the resources to play politics in this year’s elections, employees are being told to shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “No one should be forced to pay dues to a union, especially when its officials continually abuse that federally granted special privilege.”

In May 2001, Teamsters Local 491 officials entered into a collective bargaining agreement that required all workers in the bargaining unit to pay union dues as a condition of employment. After Demaske expressed her desire to pay dues to cover only proven collective bargaining costs, Teamsters union officials threatened to have fired all employees who failed to pay full dues via a mandatory payroll deduction. Union officials also maintained an illegal objection policy under which workers could not resign their formal union memberships and object to payment of full union dues in concert with coworkers.

The actions of Teamsters union officials violated workers’ rights outlined in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Communications Workers v. Beck decision. Under Beck, a case argued and won by Foundation attorneys, workers may not only resign from formal union membership at any time, but also may only be legally forced to pay for the union’s proven collective bargaining costs.

“Unfortunately, as long as Pennsylvania workers labor under a system of compulsory unionism, these sorts of abuses will continue to plague workers across the state,” said Gleason.

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.