Hammond, IN (April 2, 2012) – Today, a group of Indiana workers from across the state filed a motion for leave to file an amicus brief in federal court in support of their newly-enacted Right to Work freedoms.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, the four workers – David Bercot, a certified wastewater operator for ITR Concession Company which services Indiana toll road rest stops in the Fort Wayne-area; Joel Tibbetts, a Minteq International assistant manager in Valparaiso; Douglas Richards, an employee with Goshen-based Cequent Towing Products; and Larry Getts, a Dana Holding Corporation tube press technician in Albion – all joined in the brief defending the law against a union-boss challenge.

International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 150 headquartered in suburban Chicago, Illinois filed the federal lawsuit in late February challenging the law and requesting an injunction against its implementation.

Both Bercot’s and Tibbetts’s workplaces are unionized by the IUOE Local 150 union hierarchy. Both workers have refrained from union membership. However, they are still forced to accept IUOE Local 150 union officials’ so-called "representation" and are required to pay dues to the union as a condition of employment until expiration of contracts entered into before Indiana’s Right to Work law was enacted.

Despite both workers having to accept the IUOE union hierarchy’s "representation" by force (as a condition of their employment), IUOE union lawyers have already moved to exclude the workers’ voluntarily-sought and wanted legal representation – National Right to Work Foundation attorneys – from the proceedings.

"IUOE union bosses believe one set of rules should apply to them while the workers who are forced to accept their so-called ‘representation’ are essentially told to shut up and stay out of the way," said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. "Fortunately, these courageous workers are dedicated to protecting their rights in the face of rank union boss hypocrisy."

Indiana is the nation’s 23rd Right to Work state. Public polling shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans support the Right to Work principle, including 80 percent of union members.

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.