Dearborn, MI (July 30, 2013) – A security company and a Dearborn-based union are facing a federal prosecution for a litany of workers’ rights abuses.

The prosecution comes in the wake of a series of charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by three security guards, one of whom is receiving free legal assistance from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.

The three security guards filed the charges after their employer, AlliedBarton Security Services, entered into a monopoly bargaining agreement with the United Protective Workers of America (UPWA) Local 1 union hierarchy shortly before Michigan’s new Right to Work law took effect.

The agreement illegally requires AlliedBarton security guards working at Ford Motor Company facilities in Dearborn to join the UPWA union and pay full union dues as a condition of employment. The agreement also requires the security guards to irrevocably sign up for full union dues payments in order to receive signing bonuses.

Moreover, UPWA union and company officials promoted union members, and union members received signing bonuses, but nonmembers were explicitly denied job promotions and signing bonuses on account of their union membership status.

UPWA union officials also refuse to follow federal disclosure requirements and demand that workers who want nothing to do with the union pay full union dues. Under federal law, workers who do not have Right to Work protections can still refrain from paying for union dues used for union politics and are entitled to an audited breakdown of union expenditures to make it less difficult to discern how their union dues and fees are spent.

Moreover, a group of security guards circulated a petition to remove the UPWA union from their workplace, union officials spied on, interrogated, and threatened workers who supported the effort.

«This case underscores just how important Michigan’s new Right to Work law is for Michigan’s workers,» said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. «No worker should ever be forced to pay union dues or fees to a union as a condition of their employment.»

Update: An NLRB hearing on the case is scheduled for September 30, 2013 at the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building in Detroit.

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.