Fort Wayne, IN (February 2, 2015) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, two Fort Wayne Kroger workers have won a settlement after filing federal charges against a local union for ignoring their right to refrain from paying union dues.

In September 2014, Eleanor Haynes and Barbara Peter filed the unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union Local 700.

Haynes and Peter resigned from the union and revoked their dues deduction authorizations – a document used by union officials to automatically collect dues from workers’ paychecks – effective with the expiration of the union’s contract with their employer. Under federal labor law, workers can unconditionally revoke their dues deduction authorizations when a contract between the union and their employer terminates. Under Indiana’s popular Right to Work law, no worker can be required to join or pay any money to a union.

Despite the workers’ efforts to exercise their rights, UFCW Local 700 union officials continued to confiscate union dues payments from their paychecks.

Per the terms of the settlement, Kroger and Local 700 union officials will refund Haynes $197.21 and union officials will refund Peter $169.73 in illegally-seized union dues, plus interest. The union hierarchy must also post a notice in the workplace informing other workers of their right to refrain from dues-paying union membership.

«These two Kroger workers followed all necessary procedures to exercise their legally-protected right to resign their union membership and cut off union dues to no avail,» said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. «Local 700 union officials relented and acknowledged these workers’ rights only after the workers filed federal charges.»

«This case underscores just how important Indiana’s Right to Work law is for workers who want nothing to do with scofflaw union bosses,» added Mix.

Twenty-four states have Right to Work protections for private-sector workers. Public polling shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans and union members support the Right to Work principle of voluntary unionism.

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.