Majority of TerryBerry employees in Grand Rapids signed decertification petition seeking to oust machinist union

Grand Rapids, MI (April 25, 2023) – TerryBerry Company employee Mary Soltysiak filed a petition for dozens of her coworkers with the National Labor Relations Board Region 7 (NLRB) seeking a vote to remove the International Association of Machinist of Aerospace Engineers (IAM) District Lodge 60/Local Lodge 475 union officials’ forced representation powers.

This workers’ decertification petition comes in the wake of Michigan legislators ramming through a bill to repeal their state’s decade-old and highly popular Right to Work law. When the repeal law takes effect, union officials will once again have the power to force workers to pay up or be fired in workplaces where the union has forced “representation” powers.

Mary Soltysiak and her coworkers at TerryBerry Company filed for a decertification vote on April 14, 2023, with free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys. Previously, she had been under the protections of the Michigan Right to Work law since 2018. Her decertification petition contained signatures of a majority of the employees in the unit.

Under federal labor law, workers can trigger such a decertification vote with the support of 30% of workers in a unionized workplace. The NLRB should then promptly schedule a secret ballot election to determine whether a majority of workers want to end union officials’ power to impose a contract, including forced dues, on workers.

National Right to Work Foundation-backed reforms the NLRB adopted in 2020 made it somewhat easier for workers to exercise their right to hold votes to remove unwanted union officials. However, the Biden-appointed NLRB is currently engaging in rulemaking to roll back these protections and make it much harder to decertify a union.

Even under the 2020 “Election Protection Rule” overcoming union tactics to block such votes can often be difficult, which is why workers are encouraged to contact the Foundation for free legal representation in navigating the process. Worker interest in removing unwanted unions is growing nationwide, especially in Michigan. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys field numerous requests for free legal assistance in decertification cases, like the one brought by Soltysiak and her coworkers.

The NLRB’s own data shows that, currently, a unionized private sector worker is far more likely to be involved in a decertification effort as a nonunion worker is to be involved in a unionization campaign. NLRB statistics also show a 20% increase in decertification petitions last year versus 2021.

“Poll after poll showed that Michigan voters overwhelmingly supported Michigan’s Right to Work law, which doesn’t prevent a single person from voluntarily joining or paying dues to a union, but merely protects workers from being fired for non-payment,” observed Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “Instead of listening to voters and trusting workers to decide whether or not to subsidize union activities, anti-Right to Work legislators and Governor Whitmer decided to cater to politically-connected union bosses and gave them the power to extort workers to pay up or be fired.”

“As Michigan workers again face the prospect of mandatory union dues, we expect more will follow these TerryBerry workers and seek an end to union officials’ so-called ‘representation’ in their workplaces,” continued Mix. “Being forced under a union you oppose is bad enough, but then being told to pay up or be fired is even worse. Michigan workers should know that National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys stand ready to assist them in exercising their right to decertify unwanted unions.”

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.