Union bosses continue to seize forced dues from over 50 workers

Washington, D.C. (December 6, 2016) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, two local workers have filed unfair labor practice charges against the International Union of Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA) and its Local 247.

The charges state that union officials continue to seize union dues from their and other employees’ paychecks despite a deauthorization election that eliminated the forced dues clause from the workplace bargaining agreement. Dues check off revocation letters sent to the union by the two workers and many others were ignored.

Troy Golson and Yasir Maatoug work as security guards in the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, D.C. In November 2015 employees in their company, Coastal International Security, successfully won a deauthorization election against the SPFPA union. A deauthorization election can be called by employees to remove the forced-unionism clause that allows union bosses to have a worker fired for refusing to pay the union dues or fees.

After the vote, nearly 100 Coastal employees sent union officials a dues check off revocation letter, which legally stops the collection of forced dues by the union from their paychecks. However, union officials ignored some of the letters and continued seizing dues from at least 50 employees’ paychecks, erroneously claiming workers could not stop payment except in a union-determined “window period.”

Under current National Labor Relations Board law, workers who win a deauthorization election have the right to halt automatic deductions from their paychecks immediately simply by sending the union a revocation letter.

“This is yet another example of union bosses trying to get every last penny in forced dues they can from the workers they claim to ‘represent,’” observed National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “No worker should have to jump through all these hoops just to exercise their legal right. The District of Columbia needs to adopt a Right to Work law to ensure that the right to refrain from union membership or fees is guaranteed for all workers.

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.