With all the controversy surrounding card check legislation, it's worth talking to workers who've actually experienced the procedure first-hand. With that in mind, the National Right to Work Foundation interviewed several employees who endured intimidation, harassment and coercion at the hands of union organizers during an actual card check drive. After UAW organizers forced their way into the workplace through the coercive card check scheme, the workers forced a secret ballot decertification vote (using a precedent won by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys) and tossed out the unwanted union.

Here's the video:

School Bus Drivers File Charges against AFSCME Union for Illegal Threats, Dues Collections

Lack of Right to Work law leads to ugly union abuse of workers

Indianapolis, IN (April 24, 2009)– With free legal aid from staff attorneys at the National Right to Work Foundation, three bus drivers have filed federal unfair labor practice charges against union bosses for an illegal scheme to bully nonmember employees into paying full union dues.

Barry Hickman, Connie Hickman, and Thomas Spencer II drive school buses for First Student, where they are forced to accept the “representation” of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3826. In March and April 2008, Barry and Connie Hickman sent two letters each to AFSCME Council 62, the regional body which handles the local’s objection policy, objecting to pay for non-bargaining costs they could not be required to financially support. Spencer sent a similar objection letter in May.

Because Indiana is not yet a Right to Work state, nonmembers may be fired from their jobs for refusal to pay compulsory fees to a union with which they want nothing to do. However, union officials may not lawfully compel nonmembers to pay for activities like political activism, lobbying, and member-only events.

---

Read the full release here.

Using card check, UAW operatives muscled their way into a plant in Albion, Indiana. The courageous working mom featured below joined with her coworkers to exercise legal rights won by the National Right to Work Foundation to throw the union back out.

Check out the National Right to Work Committee's latest video on one working mom's encounter with professional UAW organizers:

Previous Right to Work videos on the UAW's abusive card check drive in Albion are available here and here.

Sonoma County grape pickers aren't the only workers facing prolonged union occupation - an employee decertification election aimed at ejecting International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 from a Northwest Indiana plant has also been repeatedly stalled by frivolous union blocking charges:

Dozens of workers at the Edw. C. Levy Co., a slag processing subcontractor at Mittal Steel's Burns Harbor plant, are involved in a lengthy and nasty dispute with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150.

The workers claim Local 150 is purposely delaying their right to an election that could, presumably, rule out the union as their representative. The workers, who voted out Local 150 in 2007, claim that its repeated filing of unfair labor practice complaints is strictly to delay a new election, again presumably to vote in another union.

"All we want is a vote," said Jim Bezler, a Levy Co. mechanic for three years and one of the few workers who would allow me to print his name.

Like the Sonoma grape pickers, workers in Indiana are being punished for an alleged company malfeasance despite the employees' repeated grassroots campaigns to kick out the unwanted union: 

The Levy Co. workers I spoke with disagree, claiming Local 150 is taking full advantage of the NLRB's policy by filing charge after charge against the Levy Co.

"They keep pushing back any hope for us to have an election," said Alvin Johnson III, a mechanic from Hebron. "And now they just filed six more charges which could drag this out even longer, possibly to September."

The union bosses, of course, are only interested in retaining their forced dues and monopoly bargaining privileges. Moreover, evidence suggests union operatives have engaged in vandalsm, including actions which could seriously harm independent-minded workers:

Some of the workers also claimed that Local 150 supporters have sabotaged company equipment, such as dumping materials in hydraulic tanks and removing bolts from transmissions.

"I've seen the damage first-hand," Bezler said.

Other workers told me their personal property has been vandalized, including slashed tires, allegedly by Local 150 supporters.

While we applaud these workers for stepping forward, many employees don't have the time or legal expertise to deal to take on union lawyers and union thugs. If you or your coworkers need legal assistance, please contact the National Right to Work Foundation. We provide free aid to workers across the country who have been victimized by compulsory unionism. 

In this new special National Right to Work Committee video report, Dana Corporation employees in Albion, Indiana, share their stories of harassment and intimidation by UAW union operatives during a militant card check organizing drive. The workers discuss how union organizers specifically targeted and ramped up their coercive tactics against female employees.

As one worker explains in the video, “People in the UAW will call you their sister or their brother. I never treated any of my brothers and sisters that way.”

UAW union organizers were able to collect a majority of signatures after weeks of pressure on the employees. Thanks to a precedent won by attorneys with the National Right to Work Foundation, the employees eventually forced an election and defeated the UAW union hierarchy.

Workers will not have this secret ballot option if the union-label Congress repays its billion-dollar campaign debt to Big Labor by passing the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill.

The National Right to Work Foundation provides free legal aid to employees so they can fight back against union coercion and abuse.

The Foundation must rely on the voluntary support of individual Americans who believe in our cause and wish to advance our strategic litigation program. To make a fully tax-deductible donation in whatever amount, please click here.

Yesterday, Fox News followed up on its earlier story about a real-life case demonstrating how dangerous Card Check Instant Organizing drives are – and a clear example of the kind of intimidation and harassment that will occur at substantially more American workplaces if the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill passes.

In the new video report, seen below, Dana Corp. employees in Albion, Indiana, tell Fox News how United Auto Workers union organizers created an ugly and coercive environment Many workers signed cards just to stop the constant pressure of union organizers harassing them at work, in the parking lot, and even at home.

Fortunately, an important precedent established by staff attorneys at the National Right to Work Foundation allowed these very employees to obtain, and ultimately win, a decertification secret ballot election.

But millions of American workers won't be so lucky if the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill becomes law since passage of the bill would wipe out the ability of employees to challenge a card check and force a secret ballot.

For more Right to Work video reports, check out our YouTube channel.

The National Right to Work Foundation provides free legal aid to employees so they can fight back against union coercion and abuse.

The Foundation must rely on the voluntary support of individual Americans who believe in our cause and wish to advance our strategic litigation program. To make a fully tax-deductible donation in whatever amount, please click here.

Fox News just released a video report on card check from Albion, Indiana, where workers suffered through a vicious UAW organizing campaign:

Many of these employees exercised rights established by legal rulings won by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys. Here's the Foundation's original video report:

Last year, Freedom@Work reported on the allegations of corruption against Tyrone Freeman, former boss of the largest Service Employees International Union (SEIU) affiliate in California. Freeman spent nearly three-quarters of a million dollars of rank-and-file workers' forced union dues on his wife's and mother's companies and on a luxurious fat-cat lifestyle. The Los Angeles Times later reported Freeman's SEIU affiliate "charity" failed to spend a single cent on its charitable mission in two of the four years it has been in existence.

Today, the Los Angeles Times reports another SEIU union official corruption scandal, this time executive vice president of the SEIU's Illinois-Indiana health care affiliate and national SEIU union board member Byron Hobbs.

Hobbs is accused of billing the union for $9,000 for personal expenses. The LA Times continues its report by putting the latest scandal in context:

...[former Freeman Chief-of-Staff] Rickman Jackson, was removed as head of the SEIU's largest Michigan local, because he allegedly received improper lease payments for his Bell Gardens house.

Annelle Grajeda, president of both a second L.A. local and the SEIU's state council, has been on leave since August, when the union began investigating whether she had improperly used her influence to keep her ex-boyfriend on the county payroll...

Last month, the union imposed a trusteeship on an Oakland-based local and fired its officers, accusing them of misusing dues money to wage a political battle against SEIU President Andy Stern.

And of course, who can forget that it was a SEIU union boss who was engaged in pay-to-play talks with former [and corrupt] Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich -- to allegedly buy Obama's then-vacant U.S. Senate seat.

Unfortunately, the people most hurt by union boss corruption are the rank-and-file workers, especially in forced unionism states. Right to work laws, allow workers to hold union officials more accountable by exercising because workers can cut off union dues if they don’t like union officials' so-called “representation,” politics, corruption, or fat-cat lifestyles.

Senator Ted Kennedy responds to the Wall Street Journal's recent piece that among other things, exposed the coercive nature of "card check" union organizing. He brands the process "simple and fair," but maybe he should watch the video below, which we posted a few weeks back. The only thing simple about such campaigns is how unfair to employees they are. Read more in this letter to the editor from today.

A group of Dana Corporation employees from Albion, Indiana, recently fought their way free of the unwanted United Auto Workers union capitalizing on a ruling won by the National Right to Work Foundation.