San Francisco, Calif. (December 8, 2004) – Three local station engineers for Univision’s KDTV-Channel 14 filed federal charges against broadcasting union officials for failing to honor employees’ rights to refrain from subsidizing union politics, demanding payment of full union dues over their objections, and threatening to have dissenting employees fired for refusal to pay full dues.

With free legal assistance from attorneys with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, William Sanders, Victor Aelion, and Cheyney Bryan filed the unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) Union Local 51 and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union. The federal labor agency will now investigate the allegations and determine whether to issue a complaint and formally prosecute. The NABET union falls under the CWA union’s national umbrella.

The employees allege that, beginning in May 2004, they informed union officials that they were asserting their right to refrain from paying full union dues. However, union officials demanded that they reconfirm their objection on an annual basis.

“Union officials want professionals like William Sanders and his coworkers to simply shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Rather than respect the rights of workers they claim to represent, union officials are bullying workers to pay for their political electioneering.”

The workers’ unfair labor practice charges follow similar charges filed late last year after NABET and CWA officials failed to give workers an adequate notice of their right to pay less than full union dues and threatened to have them fired unless they paid a union initiation fee (amounting to three weeks’ pay) as well as several months of back dues.

The actions of NABET and CWA union officials violated employee rights recognized under the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court Communications Workers v. Beck decision. Under Beck and subsequent NLRB rulings, union officials must inform employees of their right to refrain from formal union membership and observe their right not to pay for costs unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activity.

“No one should be forced to pay dues to an unwanted union just to get or keep their job,” stated Gleason. “This is especially true when union officials go out of their way to bully and threaten workers simply for trying to exercise their rights.”

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.