Washington, DC (September 2, 2011) – Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and National Right to Work Committee, released the following statement regarding this year’s Labor Day holiday.

“This Labor Day, many workers will enjoy a well-deserved long weekend. But as we prepare to celebrate with friends and family, union officials – working in concert with the Obama Administration’s National Labor Relations Board – are mounting an unprecedented bureaucratic offensive to grab more coercive power. Their goal is simple: To expand the number of workers forced to pay union dues and accept mandatory union representation just to keep their jobs.

“Big Labor’s ambitions were highlighted last week by the abrupt overturn of the NLRB’s Dana decision, which provided a modest check on abusive ‘card check’ union organizing. Instead of allowing workers a window period to contest the outcome of a card check drive with a secret ballot vote, the NLRB has ensured that union operatives need only present a bare majority of signed authorization cards – often collected through violent or unsavory means – to acquire monopoly bargaining privileges.

“And this decision is just the tip of the iceberg. The Obama Board – aided and abetted by its Big Labor allies – is moving forward with onerous new regulations to facilitate union organizing, including rules that will require companies to turn over employees’ home addresses to aggressive union organizers. Meanwhile, the NLRB is suing several states for attempting to protect workers’ access to secret ballot elections and has issued a complaint against Boeing for locating its newest production line in Right to Work South Carolina.

“Throughout the United States, more than 12 million American workers are already compelled to pay union dues just to keep their jobs. Millions more are required by law to accept a union’s so-called ‘representation,’ even if they never asked or voted for it.

“Meanwhile, many workers feel they have no choice but to pay for organized labor’s extensive political activities, while others are still unaware of their right to object. That’s why the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is providing free legal aid to thousands of employees nationwide.

“This Labor Day, we commend all workers brave enough to stand up to union intimidation, harassment, and even violence as they defend their cherished freedoms. But we must also continue to fight Big Labor’s bureaucratic attack, which threatens to further subvert workers’ 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.