Hospital employee filed unfair labor practice charges with the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys

Thousand Oaks, CA (September 15, 2015) – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a formal complaint against the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West union for violating the rights of Guillermo Cornejo, a nurses’ aid at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center.

In March of 2012, SEIU officials informed Cornejo that he was automatically enrolled as a union member after he started working at Los Robles and would be expected to pay full union dues. SEIU officials never properly informed Cornejo of his rights to refrain from formal union membership and opt out of paying full dues.

In California and other states that lack Right to Work laws, nonunion employees can be required to pay union fees as a condition of employment. However, they cannot be forced to pay for union activities unrelated to workplace bargaining, such as political activism. Moreover, federal labor law holds that no employee can be forced to formally join a union. Union officials have a legal duty to inform employees of their rights.

Despite these protections, SEIU officials never informed Cornejo of his workplace rights and failed to give Los Robles employees adequate information about how to opt out of paying dues for union politics. In April 2013, SEIU officials attempted to have Cornejo fired from the hospital for refusing to comply with their forced-dues demands.

With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Cornejo responded by filing unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB in May 2013. The Board’s General Counsel has now issued a formal complaint against the union, seeking to require union officials to inform employees of their right to refrain and obtain reimbursement, plus interest, of any union dues confiscated from nonunion employees for activities unrelated to workplace bargaining since November 2012.

“SEIU officials ignored the law to force new employees into full dues-paying union ranks,” said Patrick Semmens, vice president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “We’re happy to report that the NLRB has finally taken action to hold SEIU bosses accountable for this injustice, but similar union practices will continue until California adopts a Right to Work law, which would make union membership and dues payments 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.