**Minneapolis, MN (August 23, 2006)** — With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a stage technician hit the International Association of Theatrical State Employees (IATSE) union Local 490 with federal charges – challenging an industry-wide forced union dues scheme.

Filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the unfair labor practice charges detail how IATSE union officials successfully threatened to have Gregory Niska and others black listed for exercising their legal right not to join the union. Federal labor law states that employees cannot be forced to join or pay dues to a union prior to 30 days of employment.

Niska and other employees in the theatre industry often take jobs that last less than 30 days, but IATSE officials have entered into contracts with production companies requiring employees to pay union dues as a job condition. The union officials’ actions violate Section 8(b)(1)(A) of the National Labor Relational Act (NLRA).

According to the NLRA, union officials cannot seize forced dues from an employee’s paycheck until after he has completed at least 30 days with the same employer. The IATSE union hierarchy, however, routinely ignores such legally-mandated grace periods and instead requires dues payment upon 30 days of work in the industry – even if no one project lasts 30 days. Upon 30 days in the industry, the union hierarchy illegally demands that theatre workers pay the union annual – as well as other various unexplained – forced dues or face blackballing from many projects.

The NLRB charge details how when Niska exercised his legal right not to pay dues to or join the union, IATSE officials placed Niska on a Do Not Hire list and notified at least one of his employers that he was “ineligible to work” at which point the employer chose not to hire Niska “in order to avoid complications.”

“With this illegal policy, IATSE union officials are extorting money out of theatre workers who are just trying to get a break,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The union hierarchy is more concerned with stuffing its coffers with forced dues than promoting the interests of the workers union officials supposedly represent.”

The NLRB will investigate to decide whether to prosecute the union to remedy the allegations set forth in Niska’s charges.

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.