Asheboro, N.C. (July 27, 2004) – Three Goodyear Tires (Goodyear) employees filed federal charges today against their employer and the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) union for jointly coercing a majority of the plant’s workers to accept an unwanted union. Receiving free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, the workers filed the unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Winston-Salem.

Bowing to pressure brought by USWA union operatives, Goodyear signed a so-called “neutrality agreement” that prohibited the traditional and less abusive secret ballot election process in favor of a coercive “card check” campaign. As a result, Goodyear gave union organizers full access to employees’ personal information and company facilities to browbeat workers into signing union recognition cards that were counted as “votes” for unionization.

After USWA officials claimed that a majority of workers had signed such cards in mid-March, the union was installed by Goodyear as the monopoly representative of roughly 340 workers at the plant.

However, numerous workers submitted letters to Goodyear and the arbitrator who counted the cards revoking their previously signed cards. USWA officials, Goodyear, and the arbitrator ignored the revocations.

The workers’ unfair labor practice charges simply ask the NLRB to recount the cards and recognize the letters from workers revoking previously signed cards. The NLRB will now investigate the charges and decide whether to issue a formal complaint.

“Goodyear and USWA officials pulled the rug out from underneath workers by corralling them into unwanted union representation without so much as a secret ballot vote,” stated Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Since employees are increasingly rejecting union membership when given a true choice, union officials are cutting back-room deals with companies to help bully workers into compulsory unionism.”

The filing comes on the heels of a decision by the NLRB Regional Director in Winston-Salem to prosecute the United Auto Workers (UAW) union and Freightliner for illegally coercing another group of Foundation-assisted workers to sign union recognition cards at the Thomas Built Bus facility in neighboring High Point, N.C. That complaint will be the first of its kind issued by any NLRB regional officer in response to a rapidly expanding wave of allegations of employee rights violations related to so-called “neutrality agreements” and “top-down” unionization campaigns.

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.