**Washington, DC (June 27, 2006)** — With free legal help from the National Right to Work Foundation, a WTTG-TV (Fox 5) producer filed federal charges against the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) union after its officials threatened to have her fired for refusal to support the union. The union brass violated the producer’s rights by making these threats while failing to inform her and her coworkers of their right to refrain from formal union membership and payment of certain dues.

The Fox 5 production employee filed the class-action charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after AFTRA officials failed to provide her and her coworkers with a legally-mandated audit of the union’s expenditures, demanded that they pay union initiation fees, and insisted that she sign a dues “check off” card authorizing the automatic deduction of forced dues from her paycheck.

However, union officials unlawfully failed first to notify the employees of their right to refrain from formal union membership and withhold forced dues spent on activities unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activities.

After she refused to pay, the union hierarchy – by letter dated April 17, 2006 – unlawfully threatened her that “without tender of initiation and dues, you may not be employed in AFTRA’s jurisdiction.”

“Union officials are unlawfully retaliating against employees for refusing to toe the union line,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “These heavy-handed tactics demonstrate how far union officials will go to keep a steady stream of forced union dues flowing into union coffers.”

Under numerous U.S. Supreme Court precedents, including Patternmakers v. NLRB, workers have the right to resign their formal union memberships at any time.

AFTRA union officials’ actions also violated employees’ rights affirmed in the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court decision Communications Workers v. Beck. Under Beck, union officials may not compel workers to pay forced union dues for costs unrelated to collective bargaining, and must specifically inform employees of their right to refrain from full dues-paying union membership before seizing any forced union dues from their paychecks.

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.