**Phoenix, AZ (July 12, 2006)** – A federal judge has cleared the way for a lawsuit against Dex Media, the official publisher of phone books, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1269 union by denying motions to dismiss by union and company lawyers.

Five Dex Media employees filed a federal racketeering lawsuit last September with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys. Filed in U.S. District Court, the lawsuit alleges an elaborate scheme in which the employer, the IBEW union local, and two IBEW union agents working for Dex engaged in systematic violations of company policy and collective bargaining agreements in order to give preferential treatment to union officials at the expense of rank-and-file employees.

The workers allege that union agents have not only used their power to create labor strife for their own personal profit, but they have also cheated other workers out of earnings through the manipulation of a complex performance-based pay system used for workers selling advertising in Dex’s publications. In effect, the ill-gotten commissions the union agents improperly received raised the bar against which the other workers’ compensation packages were determined.

The suit also alleges that by knowingly aiding the union agents as they repeatedly broke company rules to increase their performance-based pay, Dex effectively bribed the union agents to act against the workers’ interests. Some of the methods used to increase the union agents’ compensation include reassigning to the union officials lucrative accounts that should have been assigned to other workers, giving the union agents “double commissions” for sales made by other workers, and allowing the union officials to regularly sell “group ads” allowing their customers to have better ad placement than would normally be warranted, all practices explicitly forbidden by Dex written policy.

Because of the pattern of illegal activity by Dex, the Local 1269 IBEW union, and the union’s agents, the suit lists five counts for violating the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and two counts for violating the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. The RICO statutes are best known for having been used to prosecute criminals for Mob and gang activities.

“This clears the path for these employees to seek justice from these union officials who have been stealing from the very workers they claim to represent,” said National Right to Work Foundation vice president Stefan Gleason.

Now that District Court Judge Murguia has denied the motions to dismiss, proceedings can continue so that the wronged employees can have their day in court. After the case was originally filed, Dex Media was acquired by RH Donnelley for a reported $9.5 billion. Plaintiffs’ attorneys may amend the complaint to include any post-merger racketeering that has occurred under RH Donnelley’s watch.

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 about 200 cases nationwide per year.