Employee Lawsuit Pushes Teacher Union Bosses to Refund Dues, Allow Educators to Resign

Despite a partial victory, Right to Work Foundation presses forward with
lawsuit to ensure all public educators’ rights are protected

Louisville, KY (November 18, 2009) – Facing an embarrassing legal setback from rank-and-file teachers, Jefferson County Teacher Association (JCTA union officials announced their intention to refund several educators’ forced dues and allow public school employees to resign from union membership during a new window period and terminate certain forced dues payments.

This announcement comes on the heels of a class-action lawsuit filed by Jefferson County educators with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation. The lawsuit, filed against the JCTA union and its national affiliate, the National Education Association (NEA) union, in U.S. District Court, seeks the return of illegally seized dues, a modification of the union’s contract to allow employees to resign from union membership at any time, and a regular notice from the union brass informing public school employees of their right to refrain from formal union membership . . .

(Read more here)

Yesterday, The National Right to Work Foundation announced an offer of free legal aid to workers forced to go on strike by UFCW union bosses in Arizona. Now it seems that employee discontent has forced the union hierarchy to back-off its strike threats and bargain with Safeway and Fry's.

However, reports are that union officials has still not agreed to a new contract, so workers dissatisfied with union representation can:

1) Resign from union membership and revoke their union check-off forms to stop paying union dues. Here's a link to a sample dues cancellation letter for Arizona UCFW members. If you want to stop paying union dues, all you have to do is fill in your personal information and send it to the address provided on the form. For more information on opting out of union dues if you've signed a check-off form and live in a Right to Work state, click here. 

2) Independent-minded workers can also initiate a decertification petition to kick the union out of the workplace entirely. For more information on decertification petitions and elections, click here. 

As always, Right to Work attorneys stand ready to help workers who are tired of putting up with union boss antics, threats of crippling strikes, and excessive union dues. 

After only a few months in office, the Obama Administration issued a controversial executive order that encourages federal agencies to use discriminatory Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) when allocating lucrative government contracts. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, PLAs give unionized companies preferential access to government work, which allows federal agencies to pressure unwilling employers to turn their workers over to union bosses. Fortunately, the first federal PLA issued under this executive order has just been defeated in New Hampshire:

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) today announced that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has canceled its solicitation for bids to construct a new Job Corps Center in Manchester, N.H. under a government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA). The cancellation came in response to a protest filed with the Government Accountability Office Office (GAO) by ABC member North Branch Construction . . .

As the Associated Builders and Contractors' release points out, PLAs cut nonunion companies out of the bidding process, making federal projects more susceptible to wasteful union work rules and massive cost overruns. The Foundation has filed public comments opposing the use of PLAs with the Department of Labor. Although the DoL's response has been marked by shady union boss maneuvering, we hope the Administration will take note and rescind its discriminatory executive order. (Of course, we won't be holding our breath given how close the administration is to Big Labor).

For more information, here's a CNN segment on PLAs that includes an interview with Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason:

National Right to Work President Mark Mix recently appeared on Fox Business to discuss the ongoing Philadelphia transit strike:

Fresh on the heels of rumors that former union hatchet man Ron Bloom may become "czar" of US manufacturing policy, the AFL-CIO is crowing about the appointment of one of their own to run the most powerful regional Federal Reserve bank. Former electricians union boss Denis Hughes, top dog in a state where a forced unionism stranglehold has crushed the economy and employee freedom, has just been named chairman of New York's powerful financial oversight board:

Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, was named chairman of the powerful Federal Reserve Bank of New York today.

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Hughes, a 40-year member of the Electrical Workers (IBEW), has led the New York State federation since 1999.

The New York bank is the operating arm of the Federal Reserve System in New York, northern New Jersey, Fairfield County in Connecticut, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It is the largest of the 12 Federal Reserve district banks in terms of assets and volume of activity.

Given the Administration's history of union-stooge appointments and administrative giveaways, we're not exactly surprised by this latest development. But it is indeed disturbing to witness a slow-motion takeover of government and other powerful institutions by forced unionism proponents under the guise of "hope" and "change."

After a long and vicious feud, it seems CNA and SEIU bosses have finally buried the hatchet... in the backs of independent nurses:

Two of the nation’s fastest-growing labor unions — the Service Employees International Union and the California Nurses Association — ended a bitter yearlong dispute on Wednesday by agreeing to work together to unionize hospital workers and push for universal health coverage.

For the last year, the two unions have viciously denounced each other, with the service employees accusing the nurses of sabotaging efforts to organize 8,300 hospital workers in Ohio, and the nurses’ union accusing S.E.I.U. officials of stalking and harassing its leaders.

“We have buried the hatchet,” said Rose Ann DeMoro, president of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.

So the SEIU and CNA bosses have tabled their ugly little internecine war to focus on what's REALLY important to them -- corralling more nurses into forced-dues-paying ranks!

Given the circumstances, we're not too suprised by this touching reconciliation. The heart of the CNA-SEIU feud -- CNA criticisms of coercive SEIU organizing tactics -- was pretty much a dead letter after CNA operatives were implicated in the exact same practices at Houston and Philadelphia-area hospitals. For those of you who missed it, here's the Foundation's video report on coercive CNA organizing abuses in Texas: