Request for end of union so-called ‘representation’ comes amid contentious boycott and picket ordered by union officials against rank-and-file workers

Washington, DC (July 14, 2023) – Employees of five Union Kitchen Grocery locations in the Washington, DC, metro area have filed a petition seeking to end United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400’s monopoly bargaining power over workers. The employees submitted their decertification petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 5 with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

Union Kitchen employee Ashley Silva submitted a union decertification petition that was supported by the vast majority of her coworkers. Under NLRB rules, this should trigger an NLRB-administered decertification vote. Under federal labor law, it is illegal for employers to engage in monopoly bargaining that impacts the employment terms of all employees, even those opposed to unionization, with a minority union that lacks the support of a bare majority of workers.

With the petition now filed, the NLRB should now promptly schedule a secret ballot election so the workers can formally vote to end union officials’ power to impose a contract, including forced dues, on the workers.

Because the District of Columbia lacks Right to Work protections for its private sector workers, UFCW union officials have the power to enter into an agreement with Union Kitchen forcing Silva and her coworkers at the four DC locations to pay union dues or fees as a condition of keeping their jobs. In contrast, in Right to Work jurisdictions like those at Union Kitchen’s Northern Virginia location, union membership and financial support are strictly voluntary.

Silva and her coworkers’ effort comes amid union boss-ordered pickets and boycotts against Union Kitchen Grocery locations, which have inflamed tensions among workers and raised questions about union officials’ motives. In some instances, reportedly union picketers have endangered workers by blocking exits, requiring the intervention of police.

“The vast majority of the workers at Union Kitchen are sick and tired of the UFCW’s picketing, harassment of employees, and constant disruptions of our day-to-day work life,” Silva said. “If the union cares at all about what we want, they will respect our wishes and immediately disclaim their interest in representing workers who have overwhelmingly rejected them.”

Union Kitchen Effort Latest in Wave of Union Decertification Efforts Nationwide

Foundation attorneys are currently assisting workers nationwide in a number of high-profile decertification efforts. Most notably, Starbucks employees at locations in Buffalo, New York City, Pittsburgh, and Bloomington, MN, are seeking to remove the Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) union only one year after the union launched a highly-publicized campaign in an attempt to unionize the coffee chain.

In Miami, Foundation attorneys also recently aided XPO Logistics freight drivers in removing an unwanted Teamsters union from their facility. Teamsters bosses, including James Hoffa, considered the Miami XPO contract a breakthrough. Now those workers have rejected the Teamsters.

The NLRB’s data shows a unionized private sector worker is now far more likely to be involved in a decertification effort as their nonunion counterpart is to be involved in a unionization campaign. NLRB statistics also show a 20% increase in decertification petitions last year versus 2021. However, union officials still have many ways to manipulate federal labor law to prevent workers from voting them out, including by filing unrelated or unverified charges against management.

“Disrupting a work environment with continuous pickets and boycotts is not what Union Kitchen Grocery employees want or need. The employees’ overwhelming support for a union decertification vote should send a strong message to UFCW union officials that they need to leave,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Foundation attorneys will defend these employees in the exercise of their rights, and will oppose any attempts by UFCW officials to disenfranchise the Union Kitchen workers of their legal right to remove a union they so clearly want nothing to do with.”

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.