NLRB investigation finds Rite Aid employee was illegally threatened with termination when union officials demanded she join the union and pay full dues

Constantine, MI (March 4, 2016) – Responding to a charge filed for Laura Fries by National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a formal complaint against United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 951 because union officials threatened to have several Rite Aid employees fired for refusing to join the union and pay full dues.

Fries worked as a certified pharmacy technician at a Rite Aid pharmacy in Sturgis, Michigan. With the help of Foundation staff attorneys, she filed charges with the NLRB after a Local 951 representative told her that she had to join the union and pay full dues to keep her job.

Federal labor law holds that no worker can be forced to formally join a union, but employees can be forced to pay up to 100% of union dues to keep a job. Under Michigan’s recently-enacted Right to Work law, most Michigan employees cannot be required to pay any union dues or fees as a condition of employment. However, union monopoly bargaining contracts that authorize mandatory union fees and predate passage of the Right to Work law, a category that includes the contract between Fries’ former employer and Local 951, were grandfathered in under a provision in the bill. This means that Fries could be forced to pay a so-called “agency fee” to Local 951, but federal law protects her right to refrain from full union membership and from paying dues for activities unrelated to workplace bargaining, such as union politics.

Despite those longstanding protections, on November 2, 2015, Fries was told by a union official that she would be fired unless she joined Local 951. Fries then signed the union membership and dues checkoff authorization forms under duress, adding the phrase “did not want to join.”

When Fries called Local 951’s office later that day, another union official said that she had been wrongfully informed that union membership is required for employment. However, this union representative also said that Fries would have to send a letter stating her desire to refrain from union membership, and informed Fries she owed back union dues from January 2015, when she first began working at Rite Aid. November 2 was the first time Fries had ever been told that she had to pay union dues as a condition of employment and owed back dues.

On November 3, Local 951 acknowledged receipt of Fries’ letter expressing her desire to refrain from joining the union. However, Local 951 did not indicate whether Fries’ resignation had been accepted. Local 951 also failed to provide any further information about what “back dues” Fries allegedly owed, and did not inform Fries how she could avoid paying for Local 951’s political activities, despite the union’s legal obligation to do so.

Fries’ employer began deducting full union dues from her paycheck in November. According to the NLRB’s complaint, several other employees were also told they would lose their jobs if they did not join the union.

“Union officials illegally threatened workers who had no interest in joining the union or paying full dues,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “While we hope the NLRB promptly intervenes to ensure nonunion employees’ rights are respected, this case demonstrates the importance of Michigan’s new Right to Work laws, which prevent union bosses from using their forced dues powers to abuse employees’ rights.”

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.