NLRB: Union officials are violating federal law by continuing to illegally fine workers for exercising right to resign from the union and return to work during 2016 strike

Brooklyn, NY (October 16, 2017) – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a complaint against Communications Workers of America Local 1109 union officials after they attempted to illegally fine two Verizon workers nearly $40,000. The complaint was issued after NLRB investigators found merit to charges filed against the CWA Local 1109 officials by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys for Verizon employees Pamela Ivy and Cheryl Allison.

In April 2016, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and CWA union officials announced a coordinated work stoppage at Verizon facilities and ordered workers up and down the East Coast, from Massachusetts to Virginia, to abandon their jobs. CWA Local 1109, which is the subject of the NLRB complaint, participated in the multi-state strike.

Soon after CWA union officials ordered the strike, the two workers who filed the charges chose to resign from the union and returned to work. Under federal law, workers cannot be compelled to join a union-boss ordered strike action. However, under a 1972 National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling, workers must resign their formal union membership before to returning to work to protect themselves from union-issued fines.

In 2016, both Pamela Ivy and Cheryl Allison resigned their union membership on April 19 and April 25 respectively. Despite this, CWA union brass is attempting to fine these two Verizon employees for working during the strike through the end of May 2016. Ivy is being charged $21,918.16 while Allison is being charged $16,791.14.

Understanding their legal rights were in jeopardy, Ivy and Allison turned to National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney for free legal assistance in defending their legal rights. As such, Foundation staff attorneys filed separate federal unfair labor practice charges against CWA union officials for violating federal labor law with these corrupt fines.

In response to those ULP charges, the NLRB Brooklyn Region Director issued a consolidated complaint against CWA union officials on September 28, 2017. This is the second complaint that the Brooklyn Region Director has issued in recent weeks against CWA union officials for illegal strike fines against Verizon workers as a result of Unfair Labor Practice charges filed with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation.

Foundation staff attorneys have already defended fifteen Verizon workers from retaliation by union officials as a result of the April 2016 East Coast strike. In prior cases seven of those workers were fined up to $14,000 each for exercising their federally protected rights. The remaining eight were threatened by union bosses with “union discipline” that would have resulted in similar fines. In eleven of those cases, union officials have already been forced to settle with the workers and rescind the illegal strike fines and threats.

“It is outrageous that CWA union officials threatened workers with thousands of dollars in fines for simply exercising their right to resign from a union so they could work to support themselves and their families,” said National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “As the numerous cases that have come after threats and illegal fines in the wake of the Verizon strike demonstrate, union officials habitually violate the rights of the very workers they claim to ‘represent.’ New York workers need Right to Work protections to help defend workers from this type of abuse.”

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.