Fort Jackson Security Guard Takes Courageous Stand Against Repeated Union Boss Threats and Abuses

National Labor Relations Board agents investigate charges after Right to Work Foundation attorneys join worker’s efforts

Columbia, South Carolina (October 30, 2009) – A local employee of Wackenhut Services, Inc, a security service provider contracted with Fort Jackson, is fighting back against compulsory unionism after union officials illegally attempted to have him fired from his job for refusing to pay forced union dues.

In September 2008, Ronald I. Paul filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) challenging Wackenhut and International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA) and its affiliated Local 339 union bosses after Wackenhut fired him in August 2008 for refraining from formal, dues paying union membership. The charges were eventually settled in December of 2008 and Paul continued his employment.

Starting in May 2009, in violation of the settlement, the employer and SPFPA union officials issued new threats against Paul’s job.

(Read the full press release)

National Right to Work Committee Legislative Director Greg Mourad sits down with Breitbart TV to discuss Craig Becker, Obama's radical nominee to the National Labor Relations Board. Click here to listen or use the embeddable player below:

Today, President Barack Obama's nomination of pro-compulsory unionism radical Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is scheduled to be taken up in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

National Right to Work President Mark Mix warns in today's Washington Times of the grave dangers Becker's possible confirmation will pose to workers' rights:

When the union bosses have the NLRB in their fold, workers who try to exercise their legal rights to dismiss unwanted union monopoly bargaining agents - or even to stop their forced dues from being used to elect handpicked Big Labor candidates - are denied even the most basic protections.

That's why, especially considering Mr. Becker's record, it's not a stretch to believe that - should he be confirmed by the U.S. Senate - Mr. Becker wouldn't think twice about rubber-stamping even the most abusive forced unionism schemes cooked up by union militants.

In fact, as a former AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) lawyer, Mr. Becker is solely responsible for forcing tens of thousands of workers under union boss control.

In one case, reports from a Los Angeles SEIU local union revealed that almost 63,000 people rejected membership in the union in 2007, but thanks to Mr. Becker, were still forced to pay dues.

And Mr. Becker's own words explain why. He was even so bold as to say unions were "formed to escape the evils of individualism and individual competition ... their actions necessarily involve coercion."

With that kind of anything-goes attitude, it's no surprise Mr. Becker supports "home visits," in which union militants repeatedly harass workers at home until they sign union-authorization cards, and even advocates letting Mr. Obama's handpicked arbiters impose contracts on workers, without even allowing the workers to vote on their own contract.

In fact, Mr. Becker is so extreme he actually believes the only choice workers should have is which union they should be forced to join and pay dues to!

In Mr. Becker's view, if an independent worker refuses to pick, he and the rest of Big Labor's lackeys on the NLRB should be able to choose a union for that worker. This kind of Big Labor kowtowing is not only outrageous, but it's also dangerous.

To read all of Mark Mix's op-ed in the Washington Times click here.

Though it doesn't get nearly as much attention as other high-profile appointments, President Obama has recently nominated several new members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency which oversees private sector labor relations and the federal policy of forced unionism.

These appointments have far-reaching implications for employee freedom, so it's important that NLRB nominees are thoroughly vetted before they take office.

Unfortunately, Obama's latest choice for the NLRB, Craig Becker, has radical views on the extent of union coercive power, and he comes directly out of the all-powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) whose bosses have been as thick as thieves with the notoriously corrupt Big Labor front group ACORN. Here's The Wall Street Journal on Becker's troubling history and his role in drafting Obama executive orders while on the SEIU union payroll:

One of Big Labor's priorities in Washington is to place allies in key government jobs where they can overturn existing labor policy without battles in Congress. This is a very good reason for the Senate to hold a hearing on the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Mr. Becker is associate general counsel at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is most recently in the news for its close ties to Acorn, the disgraced housing shakedown operation. President Obama nominated Mr. Becker in April to the five-member NLRB, which has the critical job of supervising union elections, investigating labor practices, and interpreting the National Labor Relations Act. In a 1993 Minnesota Law Review article, written when he was a UCLA professor, Mr. Becker argued for rewriting current union-election rules in favor of labor. And he suggested the NLRB could do this by regulatory fiat, without a vote of Congress.

Read the whole thing here. As a member of the NLRB, Becker will be in a position to rewrite American labor law and achieve his stated goals of marginalizing employees from the process of deciding whether they are unionized. Allies of worker freedom should be extremely concerned about this nomination.

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Previous Foundation coverage of Becker's radical views can be found here, here and here. 

As if there was ever any doubt about whether or not the federal government favors union bosses over individual employees (including union members and nonmembers alike), the National Labor Relations Board last week determined that union bosses may lie to employees about employers' contract proposals.

In a Division of Advice memorandum, NLRB Associate General Counsel Barry Kearney ruled that union chiefs do not commit an unfair labor practice when they misstate the details of a contract proposed by the company.

In the NLRB's twisted logic, union bosses can deceive the very employees it has the duty to fairly represent so long as the deception involves "wholly an internal union matter."

This is a textbook example showing just why Right to Work protections are so needed.  In 22 states with Right to Work laws, employees cannot be forced to join or pay dues to a union to get or keep a job.  When "representatives" deliberately lie to employees about contract negotiations, why should workers be forced to pay for this "service"?

In recent weeks, President Barack Obama nominated AFL-CIO and SEIU union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the quasi-judicial agency that administers federal labor law. Some of the Board's most important functions include overseeing the secret ballot elections in union certification drives and resolving unfair labor practices committed by union organizers.

But Becker's employment history and published writings indicate his extreme hostility to both the secret ballot and true employee free choice. As a member of the NLRB, Becker would likely rubber stamp the most abusive forced unionism schemes cooked up by union militants to compel independent-minded American workers to accept their "representation" and pay dues.

In this special video report hosted at the National Right to Work Committee's website, Committee President Mark Mix analyzes Becker's extreme views.  Becker:

• Supports "home visits," in which union goons repeatedly harass workers at home until they sign union authorization cards (see here for an example of this intimidating practice)
• Advocates letting government arbiters impose contracts on workers and employers on workers, without even allowing the workers to vote on the contract (a practice which even Far Left icon George McGovern opposes)
• Believes employers should be absolutely prohibited from sharing any truthful and noncoercive information with employees about the effects of unionization
• Illogically and radically compares union certification elections to US Congressional elections, stating that the only question decided in such elections should be which union gets monopoly control over workers, not whether they wish to remain independent and union free.

Watch the full video below to learn more.

For more on Becker's nomination and radical forced unionism views, read this Wall Street Journal editorial. To download the National Right to Work Committee's Becker Alert, click here.

On Thursday, National Right to Work Foundation attorneys asked the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) General Counsel to reinstate federal charges challenging a common and illegal union tactic in the entertainment industry.

Foundation attorneys are helping an independent contractor who occasionally works as a "daily hire" for ABC.

The monopoly bargaining contract between the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) union and ABC contains a forced-unionism clause mandating that "daily hires" join the union or pay so-called agency dues to the union "after twenty (20) days of employment in one year or thirty (30) days employment in two consecutive years."

But the National Labor Relations Act clearly states that union officials may only begin compelling the payment of dues after thirty days of actual employment, a so-called "grace period" from the unjust practice. But Brain Johnson, the independent contractor who filed the unfair labor practices charges, has never worked close to 30 days consecutively and is in fact a "daily hire" for the entertainment company.

As Foundation attorney W. James Young explains in the letter of appeal, NLRB precedent indicates that "an employee has a right to a new grace period when an employer rehired him unless the employee was delinquent in dues when previously employed by that employer." Because Johnson had never surpassed 30 days of employment with ABC, he could never have been delinquent, and thus the NABET union cannot force him to pay dues.

But the NLRB's Regional Director in New York refused to prosecute the union for misrepresenting his rights and obligations under federal labor law. Amazingly, the Regional Director even ignored NLRB precedent from her own region that held a similar forced-dues clause facially invalid.

Young urges the NLRB's General Counsel to reverse the Regional Director's outrageous and desperate attempt to back the union position in this case, sidestepping the core, and potentially far-sweeping issue in the case.

Click here to read the full text of the letter of appeal.

As we noted earlier this week, President Barack Obama nominated two hard-line union militants to the National Labor Relations Board. Now, President Bush's inability to properly staff the five-member Board during his eight years in the Oval Office has come home to roost.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. Circuit ruled that decisions of the NLRB last year (approximately 300 in total) are not valid because only two of the five seats were filled.  In other words, there was no valid quorum, even if the two members agreed how to rule.  (A less influential federal circuit court ruled two member board decision are valid, so the circuit court split may lead to U.S. Supreme Court review)

Either way, the fact that the Board was comprised of a mere two members for such a long time is a testimony to the total incompetence of the Bush Administration in dealing with the agency.

Bill Clinton's NLRB overturned 1200 years of precedent in an effort to make it easier for union officials to coerce workers into union ranks and misuse their forced dues on political activism.

At first, the Bush administration simply kept intact a Clinton majority on the Board for a full year after taking office. Then the Bushies kept hardened union activists like Clinton holdover Wilma Liebman (who Obama has since named Board chairman) on the Board, while nominating soft and inexperienced Republican appointees.

As a result, the Bush Board was unable to get itself moving to reverse most of the controversial rulings of the activist Clinton Board.

After years of foolish efforts to cozy up to certain union bosses combined with a Keystone Cop-like incompetence with respect their NLRB nomination strategy, Bush and his staff simply gave up trying to fill the Board's vacancies in mid 2007 and failed to make recess appointments.

The union bosses must be ecstatic about their good fortune. For nearly a decade, a resurgent Big Labor had its way with this Bush Administration.  And now they've got one of their own in the White House, and the payback has already begun.

Big Labor knows how important the NLRB is to its forced unionism power over the American workplace and economy.  You can bet the Obama administration will not make similar mistakes.

On Monday, President Barack Obama announced two nominations – both with extensive backgrounds as Big Labor lawyers – to the National Labor Relations Board, the quasi-judicial body which administers federal labor law.

Craig Becker, one of the nominees, is the Associate General Counsel to both the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). Sources indicate he was a key player in Obama’s early executive order aimed at blacklisting non-union contractors and keeping employees in the dark about their right to refrain from supporting union political activities.

Worse, and perhaps more tellingly, Becker wrote in a "labor studies" journal in 1998 that employees should not have to "petition the NLRB" or "cast an affirmative vote simply to establish a 'representative process' in the workplace" (see page 15 of this PDF). In other words, Becker has indicated he would be fine with installing a union monopoly even if mere "majority support" had not been established, through either a secret ballot or the more abusive "card check" process.

These appointments are just the latest payoffs by President Obama to Big Labor for spending well over one billion dollars electing him and other pro-forced unionism politicians nationwide in 2008.

Last month, a California Agricultural Relations Board Administrative Law Judge threw out the result of a 2007 E&J Gallo’s Sonoma County vineyards employees election to oust the United Farm Workers (UFW) union as their monopoly bargaining agent.

The 2007 decertification election was the second time in less than five years the E&J Gallo's workforce voted to remove the unwanted UFW union from their workplace.  The judge ruled that the company failed to provide an accurate list to the UFW union bosses in the lead up to the election.  Unfortunately, the clear will of the employees and a 30-vote margin was ignored due to the scorned union bosses' exploitation of an apparent clerical error on the part of the company.

However, the case isn’t over yet.  National Right to Work Foundation attorneys are helping lead petitioner Roberto Parra appeal the judge's erroneous decision.  Of course, the Foundation will keep you informed on any developments in this case and others on our website and on our Freedom@Work blog.