Chicago, IL (October 23, 2014) – An Arlington Metals Corporation steelworker has moved to intervene to stop a federal agency from foisting unwanted union representation back on his workplace after he and his coworkers attempted to remove the union.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Franklin Park-area Arlington Metals employee Brandon De La Cruz filed the motion with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Chicago. Predictably, the NLRB General Counsel filed a brief in opposition to the workers’ motion.

De La Cruz and a majority of his coworkers petitioned their employer to remove the United Steelworkers (USW) union from their workplace. After the workers presented the petition, Arlington Metals management withdrew recognition of the union as the workers’ bargaining representative, as long-standing law permits.

USW union officials filed federal charges with the NLRB in an attempt to nullify the workers’ petition and force the union hierarchy back into the workplace. The NLRB’s General Counsel then issued a complaint to force the company to once again recognize the union as the workers’ monopoly bargaining representative.

This new policy, in direct violation of U.S. Supreme Court precedent, is being pushed by union lawyer Richard Griffin, who was installed as NLRB General Counsel in October 2013. Prior to being the Board’s top lawyer in charge of enforcing federal labor laws, Griffin’s «recess» appointment to the NLRB was deemed illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court in late June.

«The NLRB General Counsel’s rogue complaint and his opposition to employees’ right to intervene to protect their decertification efforts flies in the face of long-standing precedent allowing workers to remove a union from their workplace with a showing of majority support,» explained Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. «And the very workers who have a direct interest in the result of these proceedings have been thus far shut out.»

«Highlighting the Obama Board’s pro-forced unionism bias, the NLRB still maintains that a company can recognize a union if a majority of workers sign union ‘cards’ through the coercive and unreliable card check method, while its top lawyer works to eliminate workers’ ability to use the same procedure to oust an unwanted union,» added Mix.

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.