Newport News, VA (October 6, 2011) – In the wake of the recent Communications Workers of America (CWA) union-boss instigated strike that grabbed national headlines, a Newport News, Virginia Verizon (NYSE: VZ) worker has filed federal charges against the union and company for violating her rights.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, Williamsburg resident Monika Cassell filed unfair labor practice charges against the CWA union, its Local 2205, and Verizon for ignoring her right to refrain from paying union dues.

Upset by the CWA union officials’ order to strike, and desiring to continue working to provide for their families, Cassell and other Verizon employees resigned from the union and revoked their dues deduction authorizations – a document 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 any money to a union; and under federal labor law, employees can revoke their dues deduction authorizations once a contract terminates.

However, Verizon continues to confiscate full union dues payments from the workers’ paychecks despite their attempts to opt out. And, CWA union officials continue to demand that Verizon keep taking union dues from the workers’ pay.

Cassell’s charges also challenge the CWA union’s dues deduction authorizations because those authorizations do not allow employees to revoke them when no contract is in effect, as federal law requires. Instead, Verizon is forcing the employees to pay full union dues for at least another year – the one-year anniversary of a new contract between the company and the CWA.

«Apparently at the behest of CWA union bosses, Verizon is refusing to honor Monika Cassell’s legally protected right to resign her union membership and cut off union dues,» said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. «It is indefensible that workers who resigned their union membership and continued to work to support their families in defiance of the CWA-ordered strike are now having their rights violated by company and union officials.»

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.