Employee Files Federal Lawsuit against CWA Union Officials and Verizon for Ignoring Her Rights

Worker refused to abandon job during highly-publicized strike but Verizon management continues to illegally divert union dues from her paycheck

Newport News, VA (February 28, 2012) – In the wake of last year’s Communications Workers of America (CWA) union boss-instigated strike that grabbed national headlines, a Newport News, Virginia Verizon (NYSE: VZ) worker has filed a federal lawsuit against the company and a local union for violating her rights.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, Williamsburg resident Monika Cassell filed the lawsuit in federal district court against Verizon, the CWA and its affiliate, Local 2205, for refusing to honor her right to refrain from paying union dues.

Upset by CWA union officials’ strike order and unwilling to walk off their jobs, Cassell and several other Verizon employees resigned from the union last year and revoked their dues deduction authorizations – documents used by union officials to automatically collect dues from employees’ paychecks – while the union did not have a contract at their workplaces.

Under Virginia’s popular Right to Work law, no worker can be required to join or pay money to a union. Under federal labor law, employees can revoke their dues deduction authorizations once a contract ends.

However, Verizon, at the behest of CWA union officials, continues to confiscate full union dues from Cassell and several of her coworkers despite their attempts to opt out.

Read the entire press release here.

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.