Union officials blatantly ignore employee’s revocation requests and continue to collect dues in violation of the law

White Cloud, MI (August 29, 2016) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a Newaygo County employee has filed unfair labor practice charges with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) against Teamsters Local Union 214. According to the charges filed by Gordon Alger, union officials continued to collect dues from his paycheck after he had formally notified the union of his decision to opt out of further payments.

Under Michigan’s recently-enacted public sector Right to Work law, no employee can be required to pay union dues as a condition of employment. Forced-dues requirements from union monopoly bargaining contracts prior to passage of the law were grandfathered in, but once those contracts expire, nonunion employees can no longer be required to pay union dues or fees to keep their jobs.

In December 2015, the contract between the Newaygo County Commission on Aging and Teamsters Local 214 expired. Consequently, all employees could thereafter exercise their rights under Michigan’s Right to Work law. Soon after the contract expired, Alger notified the union that he was revoking his dues deduction authorization.

Instead of following the law, union officials responded to Alger’s letter by claiming that the dues checkoff authorization he had signed in 2001, when dues were mandatory, meant that, despite the Right to Work law, he could not stop payments to the union until an annual window period in September. Furthermore, union officials illegally claimed that Alger had to send his revocation letter by certified mail, which imposes extra cost on the sender.

“Once again, union bosses in the Great Lakes State are forcing workers whom they claim to ‘represent’ to jump through numerous legal hoops just to exercise their legal rights under the law,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “This case is particularly egregious because of the multiple lies and falsifications union bosses provided Gordon Alger just so they could collect more forced fees from him for an additional few months.”

Foundation staff attorneys are currently providing free legal assistance to Michigan employees in over 30 cases. Since Michigan passed Right to Work protections for workers in 2012, the Foundation has received numerous legal aid requests from Michigan employees seeking to protect their rights, because union officials have aggressively resisted the laws’ provisions that make union membership and the payment of union dues strictly voluntary.

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.