4 Dec 2008

Coldwater Teacher Files Federal Suit Against Ohio Teacher Union Notorious for Religious Discrimination

Posted in News Releases

Columbus, OH (December 4, 2008) – A fourth grade teacher from the Coldwater Exempted Village School District has filed a federal suit against the state’s largest teacher union for forcing her to pay compulsory union fees to fund the union whose activities violate her religious faith.

National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys, providing the teacher with free legal aid, filed the suit this week in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Eastern Division.

Kathy Hart, an active member of the Catholic Church, has been a teacher in the Ohio public school system since August 1996. Because the public school she works in is unionized, she works under a collective bargaining agreement which forces her to pay compulsory union fees to the National Education Association (NEA) union and its state and local affiliates – the Ohio Education Association (OEA) union and the Coldwater Teachers Organization (CTO) union. Due to her faith, Hart objects to the unions’ positions on abortion and special rights for homosexuals.

Hart had asked that the union divert her compulsory fees to a charity, thereby accommodating her religious objections to supporting financially unions she believes to be involved in immoral activities.

NEA union officials agreed to allow Hart to redirect her compulsory union dues to a mutually agreed upon charity. However, OEA officials refused to accommodate Hart and used the CTO to collect forced union dues from her paycheck. In response, Hart filed charges with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging that the union officials’ actions were religious discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The EEOC authorized Hart in September to proceed with her own civil action against the OEA and CTO.

National Right to Work Foundation attorneys have helped Ohio teachers in dozens of cases over the last decade involving harassment by officials at the OEA union and its affiliates.

“OEA union bosses have a long and abusive record of violating employees’ rights by refusing to accommodate religious objectors in the workplace,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The OEA union hierarchy’s ugly policy of forcing teachers to fund unions which offend their consciences will continue until Ohio gives employees the protections of a Right to Work law.”

A Right to Work law secures the right of employees to decide whether or not to join or financially support a union. In the 22 states that have passed Right to Work laws, employees are free to follow their conscience and refrain from supporting an unwanted union without having to resort to costly litigation.

4 Dec 2008

New Right to Work Podcast: Theft, Extortion, and Murder: Union Bosses Act Above the Law

Posted in Blog

In this week’s episode, Foundation VP Stefan Gleason appears on “The Drive with Gary Nolan”. Stefan and Gary discuss the Big Three/UAW union bailout. They then go on to discuss how union officials have become above the law, enabling them legally to target workers with coercion, intimidation, and violence (and how they can literally get away with murder):

You can also listen to the Foundation’s podcast via iTunes or manually subscribe to the feed.

[Note: Some Firefox users have reported audio distortion when using the player above. To ensure the podcast plays correctly just click here to listen.]

3 Dec 2008

Union Bigwigs Exploit Another Tragedy To Promote Forced Unionism

Posted in Blog

Tragedy struck on Black Friday at a Wal-Mart on Long Island when impatient customers trampled an employee as they rushed into the store at 5 a.m., leading to his death.

But union bosses — long engaged in a vicious corporate campaign against the retailer in an effort to force Wal-Mart employees into their forced dues rank — are trying to exploit the tragedy for their self-serving ends:

"This incident was avoidable," said Bruce Both, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, the state of New York’s largest grocery worker’s union.

"Where were the safety barriers? Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner?

"This is not just tragic; it rises to a level of blatant irresponsibility by Wal-Mart," he said.

(Via Reason)

2 Dec 2008

Bush Executive Order Exempts Some Federal Employees from Monopoly Bargaining: Too Little Too Late?

Posted in Blog

Yesterday President Bush issued an Exectuive Order exempting several agencies and subdivisions of the Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation, and Treasury departments from draconian and stifling federal labor-management relations strictures.

This is good policy. However, while freeing any worker from forced union monopoly bargaining is a welcome step, the last-minute move begs the question: What took so long?

Unfortunately, making this common-sense change on the way out the door cheapens it, making it appear to be little more than political retaliation. The administration should have made this and many more pro-individual-rights moves long ago. Instead, the incompetent political managers in the White House thought that making policy concessions to the union bosses would have bought their support. How wrong they were.

Foundation attorneys have long advocated for freeing national security employees from forced unionization, including fighting for the rights of airport screeners to remain free from union monopoly control.

There are other recent examples of Administration officials foolishly failing to agressively protect employee free choice. There are big political lessons to be learned here.

26 Nov 2008

Are State Right to Work Laws in Jeopardy?

Posted in Blog

Currently, 22 states have Right to Work protections which ensure that while workers are free to join unions, they are also free to refuse to join or pay tribute to an unwanted union. But this summer, federal legislation to wipe away every Right to Work law in the country was introduced in Congress.

Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation and National Right to Work Committee, explains the nature of the threat — and how supporters of employee freedom rallied once before to protect Right to Work laws (while forced unionism proponents got wiped out in subsequent elections) — in Human Events:

In July, Sherman introduced legislation to repeal Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act — the provision of the 1947 law that affirms the right of states to enact Right to Work laws. Strike Section 14(b) from the books, and state Right to Work laws would be preempted by federal labor policy, which upholds forced unionism.

Sherman’s bill got little attention last year. Even most Democrats
ignored the proposed 14(b) repeal. Only eight House Democrats
cosponsored the bill before Nancy Pelosi sent it to committee.

But as time goes on, and particularly if Big Labor’s cronies in Congress
pass legislation like the Card-Check Forced Unionism Bill or the Police
and Fire Fighter Monopoly Bargaining Bill, which would force countless
thousands of America’s first responders under union control against
their will, a fresh attempt to repeal Section 14(b) may gather steam.

Read the whole thing here.

26 Nov 2008

New Right to Work Podcast: Obama Administration to Pack the NLRB

Posted in Blog

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the underlying law it enforces are major tools for union bosses to force workers into union collectives and force them to pay union dues. The incoming Obama administration is expected to help Big Labor use the NLRB even more aggressively in its war against employee free choice.

Today, Foundation VP Stefan Gleason is joined by former NLRB Member John Raudabaugh, who reveals some disturbing things American workers and businesses should expect from the Obama NLRB:

You can also listen to the Foundation’s podcast via iTunes or manually subscribe to the feed.

[Note: Some Firefox users have reported audio distortion when using the
player above. To ensure the podcast plays correctly just click here to listen.]

 

26 Nov 2008

Fact Check: Forced Dues Equals Forced Unionism

Posted in Blog

On Monday, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review published an editorial criticizing the special privileges Pennsylvania law gives to teacher unions:

The Pennsylvania State Education Association causes untold damage to kids, taxpayers and the commonwealth. Few Pennsylvanians know how costly is this teacher union. But the public has the power to tame the beast.

With more than 185,500 members, 281 full-time employees and an annual income above $84 million, the PSEA is one of the state’s wealthiest, largest and most politically active labor unions, reports The Commonwealth Foundation, a public-policy, free-market think tank in Harrisburg.

The PSEA has had cancerlike growth because of its ability to organize employees into collective bargaining units, influence legislation through its puppets that the union’s political action committee helped to elect, and push for endless amounts of public financing for public schools, which usually ends up in union members’ pockets.

Yesterday, the PSEA lied in response:

Contrary to the editorial, Pennsylvania is not a "compulsory" union state. Act 84, the Fair Share Fee law, preserves the right of all teachers and school employees to join or not to join a union.

But unions are legally required to represent each member of their bargaining units (including nonmembers) fairly and without discrimination. So it is reasonable for unions to charge nonmembers a fee for the costs of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement, as well as enforcing their collective bargaining agreements through processing grievances.

There is no question that Pennsylvania is a compulsory unionism state.  That’s an outright lie from the PSEA.  Further, this is a common refrain from union bosses, who refuse to mention that the only reason they must "represent" nonmembers because they seek monopoly bargaining over all employees, not just members.

The truth is that excellent teachers, who would often rather represent themselves in negotiations with school district officials, have no choice but to accept a union’s so-called "representation." That usually means good teachers are forced to accept lower compensation than they could get if they negotiated on their own behalf.

For more on teacher union abuses in Pennsylvania and other compulsory unionism states, check out this op-ed in the Tribune-Review by Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation.

For more on the issue of compulsory unionism and education, see this video and listen to this podcast.

25 Nov 2008

Agency Trial Judge Won’t Punish Union Officials for Threatening Non-Striking PVHMC Nurses with Fines, Jail

Posted in Blog, News Releases

National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, providing free legal aid to a California nurse who faced threats of fines and imprisonment for choosing not to go on strike, will appeal an administrative law judge’s tortured reasoning with the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, DC.

Pomona, California (November 25, 2008) – Attorneys for a Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center nurse announced they will appeal an erroneous administrative law judge ruling dismissing a federal complaint against a local union. Union officials had threatened non-striking nurses with financial penalties and even arrest for refusing to abandon their patients.

Federal labor prosecutors agreed with unfair labor practice charges brought by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys and found that Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 121RN officials had illegally coerced nurses in the exercise of their rights to refrain from union activity. The General Counsel of the NLRB formally brought the case before the federal labor law judge.

In May 2007, the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the hospital expired. SEIU officials later ordered a series of general strikes. Dozens of nurses resigned from formal union membership so they could continue treating their patients without facing retaliation by union officials. In response, union bosses menacingly disseminated information to nurses stating that, under a California “strikebreaker” law, they may be “subject to a fine of up to $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail” for refusing to join the strike and returning to work. SEIU officials further suggested to nurses that nonmembers would continue to owe compulsory union dues even though no contract containing a valid forced-dues clause was in effect.

Read the rest of the Foundation’s press release here.

25 Nov 2008

Agency Trial Judge Won’t Punish Union Officials for Threatening Non-Striking PVHMC Nurses with Fines, Jail

Posted in News Releases

Pomona, California (November 25, 2008) – Attorneys for a Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center nurse announced they will appeal an erroneous administrative law judge ruling dismissing a federal complaint against a local union. Union officials had threatened non-striking nurses with financial penalties and even arrest for refusing to abandon their patients.

Federal labor prosecutors agreed with unfair labor practice charges brought by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys and found that Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 121RN officials had illegally coerced nurses in the exercise of their rights to refrain from union activity. The General Counsel of the NLRB formally brought the case before the federal labor law judge.

In May 2007, the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the hospital expired. SEIU officials later ordered a series of general strikes. Dozens of nurses resigned from formal union membership so they could continue treating their patients without facing retaliation by union officials. In response, union bosses menacingly disseminated information to nurses stating that, under a California “strikebreaker” law, they may be “subject to a fine of up to $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail” for refusing to join the strike and returning to work. SEIU officials further suggested to nurses that nonmembers would continue to owe compulsory union dues even though no contract containing a valid forced-dues clause was in effect.

Foundation attorneys helped Carole Jean Badertscher file the original unfair labor practice charges at the NLRB, and the General Counsel agreed that the Golden State’s “strikebreaker” law “coerced and intimidated employees from engaging in activities protected by the [National Labor Relations] Act,” which guarantees the right of nonmembers to work rather than strike. Moreover, the General Counsel agreed that the union bosses’ false insistence that nonmembers pay dues when no contract is in effect is also an unfair labor practice.

But Administrative Law Judge William G. Kocol dismissed the complaint, claiming that because none of the nurses could be legally classified as “professional strikebreakers,” the California law did not apply to them, and thus they should have ignored the threats. Also, according to the ALJ, union bosses did not violate the duty of fair representation because they “did not directly link continued dues payment with enforcement of a [forced-dues clause].”

“Unbelievably, the judge has effectively indicated that employees are expected to hire their own labor lawyers to help them read between the lines of union boss propaganda intended to coerce and intimidate them,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The fact remains that union bosses sought to mislead and pressure nurses into turning their backs on patients and continue to pay dues against their will.”

Foundation attorneys will file an appeal with the NLRB in Washington, DC.

21 Nov 2008

Reminder: Time is Running Out for Rebates for Employees Under the IAM and Washington State Teacher Union

Posted in Blog

Recently, Foundation attorneys notified employees represented by the Machinists union (IAM) and Washington Education Association union (WEA) nonmembers of their opportunity to reclaim a portion of their forced union dues from supporting the union officials’ politics as determined by law and Foundation-won court precedent.

Employees Represented by IAM

In the National Right to Work Foundation’s "Special Legal Notice to Employees Represented by the Machinists union", it states that:

If you are a nonmember of the IAM paying dues to keep your job, you are entitled to claim a reduction in your 2009 IAM dues of approximately 25%. For 2009, the IAM admits that 30.54% of International union dues, 16.77% of district lodge dues and 20.61% of local lodge dues are spent on political, ideological and other non-representational activities for which no employee can be required to pay. According to the "Notice" published in the Fall 2008 issue of the "IAM Journal," you can claim this reduction by sending a letter postmarked during the month of November 2008.

With November ending in less than a week and a half, now is the time to act if you have not already done so to get your 25% reduction in your 2009 IAM dues. For more information and specific instructions on how to claim your rebate, read the Foundation’s "Special Legal Notice to Employees Represented by the Machinists union (IAM)".

Nonmembers of the NEA/WEA/UniServ Council/local association (Washington teachers)

In the Foundation’s "Special Legal Notice to Washington Teachers" it states that:

As a nonmember of the NEA/WEA/UniServ Council/local association, you should have received your 2008/09 "Hudson" package from the WEA. Please use this suggested letter that you can fill out and mail to get your 2008/09 rebate check of around $200. You must individually complete and send in your objection/challenge/rebate request letter. Your letter must be postmarked on or before December 8, 2008!

Again, time is running out. December 8th is less than two-and-a-half weeks away and if you do not send in your letter on or before December 8th, you will probably not receive your rebate. For more specific instructions on how to claim your rebate of approximately $200, please refer to the Foundation’s "Special Legal Notice to Washington Teachers".

As always, the Foundation will continue to help employees across the country fight the evils of compulsory unionism. If you are a teacher interested in your legal rights, please refer to the Abood and Hudson decisions on our Foundation-won Supreme Court precedents webpage. If you are a private sector employee, you can learn more about your legal rights under the Communications Workers of America v. Beck decision on the same page.