Washington, D.C. (February 26, 2019)<\/b> \u2013 Ford Motor Company employee Lloyd Stoner won a ruling against the United Automobile Workers (UAW) Local 600 in Dearborn, Michigan, in his federal labor case with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys. <\/p>\n
Administrative Law Judge Michael A. Rosas ruled that UAW Local 600 engaged in unfair labor practices, prohibited by the National Labor Relations Act, by accepting union dues deducted from Stoner\u2019s wages for two-and-a-half months after he resigned union membership and revoked his authorization to deduct dues. The union also failed to refund any of the dues taken without Stoner\u2019s consent for nearly five months after his revocation and then belatedly failed to refund the entire amount owed him. <\/p>\n
Stoner had already won a favorable settlement last month from Ford, which was charged in a separate complaint for deducting the unauthorized dues from his paycheck. <\/p>\n
ALJ Rosas found that union officials restrained Stoner from exercising his legal rights. Workers are entitled to resign union membership at any time under federal law. Furthermore, Michigan\u2019s Right to Work Law passed in 2012 states that nonmembers cannot be required to pay any union dues or fees as a condition of their employment. So, failing to promptly allow Stoner to resign his union membership and stop paying union dues constituted an unfair labor practice. <\/p>\n
Moreover, ALJ Rosas found that upon receiving Stoner\u2019s resignation and dues deduction authorization revocation, UAW Local 600 Financial Secretary Mark DePaoli \u201cdecided to sit on it for a while\u201d instead of providing a timely notice to Ford about Stoner\u2019s resignation and dues deduction authorization revocation. This resulted in Ford deducting dues from Stoner\u2019s paycheck without authorization for an additional 10 weeks, which constituted an additional unfair labor practice under federal labor law. <\/p>\n
DePaoli \u201cprovided a vague and less than credible explanation\u201d for his failure to properly notify Ford to stop remitting dues to the union, Rosas explained, adding that DePaoli\u2019s inaction represented \u201cmore than mere negligence.\u201d <\/p>\n
ALJ Rosas ruled that the dues deduction card that Stoner signed did not require workers to pay any dues or fees after resigning membership in the union. Union officials therefore had no legal authorization to accept any further dues deducted from Stoner\u2019s wages after his resignation. <\/p>\n
Under the ruling, UAW Local 600 must refund all dues taken from Stoner after his resignation, with interest. In addition, union officials must post notices at Ford\u2019s Dearborn factory acknowledging that the union violated federal labor law and will honor all requests to resign union membership and cut off dues deductions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision in favor of Mr. Stoner is a victory for all Michiganders who wish to exercise their rights under the state\u2019s Right to Work Law,\u201d said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cUnion bosses are officially on notice that they cannot continue seizing dues from employees after they resign their union membership.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cBig Labor has consistently refused to acknowledge the rights of workers it claims to represent, requiring Foundation staff attorneys to litigate more than 100 cases for Michigan workers since the state\u2019s Right to Work Law was passed in 2012,\u201d added Mix. \u201cAs long as Michigan union bosses continue their forced unionism abuses, the National Right to Work Foundation will assist workers seeking to free themselves from these coercive tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NLRB finding: Seizure of dues by union officials from Ford employee was a violation of his rights and \u201cmore than mere negligence\u201d Washington, D.C. (February 26, 2019) \u2013 Ford Motor Company employee Lloyd Stoner won a ruling against the United Automobile Workers (UAW) Local 600 in Dearborn, Michigan, in his federal labor case with free […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n