Hollywood, FL (February 11, 2014) \u2013 Following a prolonged legal battle, a local casino worker has successfully fought off a backroom union organizing deal with help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys. Martin Mulhall withdrew his lawsuit, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, after union lawyers ceased their efforts to enforce the agreement Mulhall was challenging. <\/p>\n
Mulhall was contesting a union organizing pact struck in 2004 between UNITE HERE Local 355 officials and Mardi Gras Gaming. Under the deal, union officials promised to spend over one hundred thousand dollars on a gambling ballot initiative and guaranteed not to picket, boycott, or strike against Mardi Gras facilities.<\/p>\n
In return, union organizers asked Mardi Gras to give them employees\u2019 personal contact information (including home addresses) and grant access to company facilities during a coercive \u201ccard check\u201d organizing campaign, refrain from informing workers about the downsides of unionization, and not request a federally-supervised secret ballot election to determine whether employees unionized.<\/p>\n
Mulhall filed a lawsuit challenging the organizing pact in 2008, alleging that the company\u2019s concessions were of substantial monetary value because they made UNITE HERE\u2019s organizing drive easier and less expensive. Under the Labor Management Relations Act, employers are prohibited from handing over \u201cany money or other thing of value\u201d to union organizers, a provision that is supposed to prevent union officials from selling out workers\u2019 rights in exchange for corporate concessions. <\/p>\n
In December, the U.S. Supreme Court \u201cdismissed as improvidently granted\u201d a union appeal of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals\u2019 ruling in Mulhall v. UNITE HERE. The dismissal leaves intact the appeals court\u2019s ruling that the company\u2019s organizing assistance to union officials could constitute \u201cthing[s] of value\u201d under the Labor Management Relations Act. After the Court dismissed the union\u2019s appeal, UNITE HERE finally abandoned its effort to enforce the organizing pact.<\/p>\n
\u201cManagement shouldn\u2019t be allowed to turn over employees\u2019 personal information to aggressive Big Labor organizers as a negotiating tactic, which is why the Eleventh Circuit\u2019s precedent is a vital protection for independent-minded workers,\u201d said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cThanks to Mr. Mulhall\u2019s victory, union bosses and employers who use workers\u2019 rights as a bargaining chip will now enter into these agreements at their own risk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hollywood, FL (February 11, 2014) \u2013 Following a prolonged legal battle, a local casino worker has successfully fought off a backroom union organizing deal with help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys. Martin Mulhall withdrew his lawsuit, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, after union lawyers ceased their efforts to enforce the agreement Mulhall was challenging. <\/p>\n
Mulhall was contesting a union organizing pact struck in 2004 between UNITE HERE Local 355 officials and Mardi Gras Gaming. Under the deal, union officials promised to spend over one hundred thousand dollars on a gambling ballot initiative and guaranteed not to picket, boycott, or strike against Mardi Gras facilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n