NLRB General Counsel Orders Prosecution of SEIU Union Officials for Illegally Threatening Non-Striking Nurses

Union bosses threatened Pomona Valley nurses with arrests, jail time, and financial penalties for refusing to abandon their patients

Los Angeles, California (May 27, 2008) – National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Ronald Meisburg has granted an appeal filed by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys for union-abused nurses at the Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. The federal government will now prosecute Service Employee International Union (SEIU) Local 121 RN union officials for threatening nurses with financial penalties and arrest for refusing to abandon their patients during a union-ordered strike.

In October of 2007, SEIU Local 121 RN officials ordered a general strike after the nurses’ collective bargaining agreement with the hospital expired. In an effort to intimidate nurses into toeing the union line, SEIU officials told nurses that refusal to strike could result in financial penalties or even arrest – citing an unenforceable California state law. Nurse Carole Jeane Badertscher, a non-union member, subsequently contacted the National Right to Work Foundation for free legal assistance and filed class action unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB Regional Director.

After the NLRB Regional Director declined to prosecute, Foundation attorneys filed an appeal with the NLRB’s General Counsel. Following a lengthy review process, the General Counsel found merit to the charges, determined that union officials violated the nurses’ legal rights.

An NLRB administrative law judge will now evaluate Ms. Badertscher’s twin charges: The first alleges SEIU union officials misled nurses by suggesting that nonunion employees would continue to owe compulsory union dues after the nurses’ collective bargaining agreement expired. The second alleges that SEIU officials illegally threatened nurses for refusing to participate in a union-ordered strike.

“It’s outrageous for union officials to suggest that nurses could be financially penalized or even sent to jail for continuing to care for their patients,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “While we’re pleased that SEIU bosses will be prosecuted for breaking the law, this type of abuse will continue until California employees have the protection of a Right to Work law that makes union membership and dues-payment strictly voluntary.”

Virginia’s Attorney General Asked to Investigate Apparent Refusal of Police to Investigate Union Harassment

Workers reported windows smashed, nails in driveways, and threatening letters, while local police turn a blind eye

Dublin, Virginia (March 13, 2008) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation today called on the Virginia Attorney General to investigate “ethical and professional breaches” by local police who actually chastised non-striking workers for exercising their constitutionally protected Right to Work rather than investigate the ongoing union harassment and property destruction they face.

A group of Pulaski County Volvo workers contacted the Foundation for help late last week after suffering a variety of retaliation tactics simply for showing up for work to support their families during a United Auto Workers (UAW) strike.

Employees have been targeted with smashed windows, derogatory signs, cut tires, nails in their driveways, sugar in their gas tanks, and more. Driving into work, as documented by local media reports, employees also had to pass a coffin labeled “all scabs welcome here,” as well as endure picketers spitting on their cars, making obscene and sexual gestures at them, and racist and sexist slurs.

Despite this, at least one employee claims that a police officer, who apparently had family or friends in the UAW union, refused to file a police report and instead publicly lectured her for “crossing the picket line” when she reported an alleged crime perpetrated by union operatives.

Foundation Staff Attorney Derek Poteet wrote to Attorney General Robert McDonnell: “...law enforcement officers have claimed to have no evidence that union members are involved. However, I have learned that law enforcement officers have, in some instances, actually caught the perpetrators only to release them with a warning, without further investigation or fingerprinting… [This is] a ‘catch and release’ attitude toward union violence.”

He continued: “If no action is taken, those who committed these crimes will have succeeded in making an example to thwart others from exercising their constitutionally protected Right to Work in the future, perceiving that the law will not protect them.”

The National Right to Work Foundation has come to the aid of many victims of union intimidation and violence, including victims of UAW harassment in Winchester, Virginia. The Foundation helped Vietnamese immigrant Schucheng Huang after union militants vandalized her car with paint, smashed her car windows, and placed a severed, bloody cow's head on the hood of her car. Huang and other victims of union violence won an undisclosed monetary settlement in 2001.

Employees Hit Union with Federal Charges After Being Slapped with $120,000 in Illegal Retaliatory Fines

Union officials levy confiscatory fines after employees exercised rights to resign from formal union membership and worked to eject union

Oostburg, WI (January 7, 2008) – With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, four Pre-Heat, Inc. employees have filed federal charges against the Sheet Metal Workers International Association union for exorbitant and illegal retaliatory fines levied against them.

The employees, led by Patrick Keefe, filed the unfair labor practice charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Sheet Metal Workers Local 18. Union officials hit them with fines of $30,000 each after they resigned their formal union membership and returned to work during a union-ordered strike. Nonunion members are not subject to internal union discipline.

Following their resignations, Keefe and his coworkers also began gathering signatures for a decertification election, an NLRB-supervised secret ballot election to oust a union, which is generally an uphill battle for workers to obtain. However, the employees’ efforts resulted in a majority of employees signing the petition to oust the unpopular union, and Pre-Heat, Inc. then withdrew recognition from the union because it no longer had the employees’ support.

After the strike ended, in November 2007, union officials ordered Keefe and his four coworkers to attend a Sheet Metal Workers union internal kangaroo court held for the purpose of punishing them for exercising their legal rights. Union agent Patrick Landgraf charged the employees with violating the union’s constitution. In his written statement during the union trial, Landgraf claimed Keefe and the others “selfishly crossed” the picket line for “this rat contractor” and accused the employees of preventing the union from obtaining a new contract. Landgraf did not mention that his union had been resoundingly rejected by the workers.

Because they were not members of the union, Keefe and the other employees chose not to show up at the “trial.” In their absence, the union’s Executive Board found the employees “guilty” of all charges, fining them a total of $120,000. Sheet Metal Workers union officials ordered Keefe and the three other workers to pay the illegally imposed fines within 30 days.

“It is unconscionable for union bosses to attempt to drive workers into the poorhouse in vicious retaliation for returning to work,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “This union intimidation is all too common in states like Wisconsin where there is no Right to Work law on the books.”

A Right to Work law secures the right of employees to decide for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union. The NLRB’s Regional Office will now investigate the charges and decide whether to issue a formal complaint and prosecute the union.

Union Officials at Pomona Valley Hospital Illegally Threaten Non-striking Nurses with Arrest, Jail, and Fines

**Pomona, CA (October 31, 2007)** – A nurse at the Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center has filed unfair labor practice charges against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 121RN after SEIU union officials illegally threatened her and her coworkers with jail and fines. The nurses wished to resign from formal union membership, cut off union dues, and continue working during any union-ordered strike.

The charges come after the collective bargaining contract at the hospital expired and after union officials ordered a five day strike during October.

In response to the intimidation, nurse Carole Jean Badertscher filed the class action charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys. The charges detail how union officials misled and threatened employees in violation of the nurses’ rights under federal labor law. The charges also cite that union officials violated their so-called “duty of fair representation,” which is intended to prevent union discrimination against employees.

In a particularly egregious violation of the employees’ rights, a top local union official threatened that nurses who defied the union’s strike order could be subject to fines and criminal penalties, including 90 days in jail. The California law referenced by union officials is clearly pre-empted by federal labor law establishing that workers can remain at their jobs and avoid all union disciplinary fines if they first resign from formal union membership.

Union officials also distributed a flier illegally misleading the nurses, claiming that the NLRB requires employees to continue paying compulsory union dues after the expiration of a contract. The flier told nurses that, when a new contract goes into effect, union officials could require all employees to pay “back dues,” implying that they could be fired if they didn’t pay.

“Union officials are shamelessly flouting federal law in an effort to intimidate these nurses into heeding the union’s unpopular demands to turn their backs on their patients,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Unfortunately, in states like California where there is no Right to Work law prohibiting compulsory unionism, union officials face little accountability.”

The NLRB’s Regional Office will now investigate the charges and decide whether to issue a formal complaint and prosecute the union for unfair labor practices.

Goodyear Employees Win Settlement Against Steelworkers Union for Illegal Retaliatory Strike Fines and Intimidation

**Akron, OH (August 20, 2007)** – In order to avoid impending federal prosecution by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a local union backed down from its unlawful attempts to fine several Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (NYSE:**GT**) employees $620 each for refusing to abandon their jobs during a union-ordered strike.

The settlement won by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys requires United Steel Workers of America (USWA) Local 2L union officials to stop threatening employees who are not formal union members with internal union fines, to discontinue holding internal union trials used to discipline such employees, and to cease coercing and intimidating employees who choose not to walk off the job during a union-ordered strike. The settlement also requires notices to be posted in visible areas throughout the Goodyear plant advising employees of their rights.

USWA union officials also must stop “using bullhorns to intimidate” and threaten retaliation against employees at their residences, according to the settlement. USWA union officials must now withdraw the illegal strike fines levied against Goodyear employees as well as expunge all internal union disciplinary records on file.

Foundation attorneys originally helped Frank C. Steen III file federal charges after union officials targeted him with illegal retaliatory strike fines, threats, hate mail, and other recriminations. Having issued a formal complaint in June 2007, the NLRB had scheduled a trial for tomorrow, August 21.

“The outright contempt that these thuggish union officials have for employees who refuse to toe the union line is despicable,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Such bully tactics underscore the Buckeye state’s need for a Right to Work law that would make union affiliation and dues payment strictly voluntary.”

Between October 2006 and January 2007, USWA officials ordered over 15,000 Goodyear employees across 16 plants in North America to walk off the job. However, in order to support their families, Steen and his coworkers resigned from formal union membership in November and exercised their right to return to work.

After resigning, Steen and his coworkers were ordered to appear at an internal “kangaroo” court (which the employees refused to attend), where union officials imposed the fines on the employees for continuing to do their jobs. USWA union officials also sought to retaliate against the workers for informing others of their legal right to refrain from formal union membership.

While at work during the strike, Steen received approximately 10 pieces of hate mail from union officials. On two different occasions, USWA union operatives shouted through bullhorns outside Steen’s residence, calling him a “low life” for refusing to abandon his job. And in a separate incident, another union-strike supporter threatened one of Steen’s coworkers over the phone that he would be fined for “everything he made and then some” and would be fired once the strike was over.

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Teamsters Union Must Abandon Over $100,000 in Illegal Fines Levied Against Workers During California Grocery Strike

**Los Angeles, CA (August 14, 2007)** – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, 54 grocery workers of Albertsons and Ralphs grocery chains won a major settlement agreement from the Teamsters Local 952 union requiring it to rescind over $100,000 in illegal strike fines.

Under the settlement approved late last week by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington, DC, Teamsters union officials will rescind all unlawful fines levied against employees during the Southern California grocery strike in 2003-2004.

The settlement also mandates that union officials allow several hundred – perhaps even thousands – of workers in eight different bargaining units to retroactively revoke their formal union membership and receive rebates of mandatory dues taken to fund union political and other non-bargaining activities. Under the settlement, the matter will now be remanded to NLRB Region 21 in Los Angeles, which will ensure the union’s compliance.

Led by Juan Saldana, Daniel Hernandez, Sr. and Mike MacDonald, dozens of Albertsons and Ralphs distribution center employees filed unfair labor practice charges in March 2004 with the NLRB after Teamsters officials issued illegal retaliatory fines against them ranging up to $7,200 per employee for refusing to participate in “sympathy strike” activity.

In fact, Teamsters Local 952 union officials socked employees with the confiscatory fines simply for observing the union’s own “no strike” contract with their employers. The targeted employees had continued to report to work during the crippling grocery strike ordered against Albertsons, Vons, and Ralphs by officials of a different union, the United Food and Commercial Workers.

“Although a significant victory for these employees, this case underscores that state law should not force any worker to affiliate with, or be ‘represented’ by, an unwanted union in the first place,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation.

Previously, an NLRB administrative law judge ruled that Teamsters Local 952 officials illegally failed to inform workers of their rights to refrain from formal union membership and to object to paying for the union’s nonrepresentational activities, such as politics. Because the employees thus cannot be considered voluntary members, the judge ruled that employees must be allowed to resign retroactively and thereby avoid internal union disciplinary measures taken against them. The ruling also overturned Teamsters officials’ illegal policy of forcing workers to renew annually their objections to financially supporting the union’s political activities, and to file such objections individually.

In the Foundation-won *Communications Workers of America v. Beck* decision in 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employees are entitled to resign from formal union membership and withhold forced dues for activities other than union monopoly bargaining, such as union political activities and lobbying. And only truly voluntary union members can be subjected to internal union discipline, such as fines

Steelworkers Union Faces Prosecution for Illegal Retaliatory Strike Fines And Intimidation of Goodyear Employees

**Akron, OH (June 5, 2007)** – After several employees at the local Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (NYSE:GT) facility filed a wave of federal charges, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has agreed to prosecute the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) union for hitting nonunion workers with illegal retaliatory strike fines and waging an ugly campaign of threats, recriminations, and hate mail.

With help from attorneys at the National Right to Work Foundation, Goodyear employee Frank C. Steen III originally filed federal charges against the USWA union after officials levied fines of $620 each against several employees for refusing to walk off the job during a union-ordered strike. Union officials imposed the fines on each of the workers after ordering them to attend an internal “kangaroo” court (which the employees refused to attend) for continuing to do their jobs. Union officials also “accused” the employees of allegedly informing others of their legal right to refrain from formal union membership.

Between October 2006 and January 2007, USWA officials ordered employees to walk off the job at the Goodyear plant. However, in order to support their families, Steen and his coworkers resigned from formal union membership in November and exercised their right to return to work.

After USWA officials issued the unlawful fines, Steen filed federal charges against USWA union officials because they disregarded the employees’ November resignations and unlawfully continued to deduct full union dues from their paychecks.

After his resignation, Steen received approximately 10 pieces of hate mail from union officials. Similarly, on two different occasions, USWA union operatives shouted through bullhorns outside Steen’s residence, calling him a “low life” for refusing to abandon his job. In a separate incident, another union-strike supporter threatened one of Steen’s coworkers over the phone that he would be fined for “everything he made and then some” and would be fired once the strike was over.

“Union officials want Frank Steen and his coworkers to shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “This case shows the contempt that union officials often have for employees who exercise independent judgment and who work to support their families during an unpopular strike.”

According to the NLRB Regional Director, the case will be heard before an Administrative Law Judge on August 21, 2007. The order for an official hearing comes after Goodyear saw a USWA union-ordered walkout of over 15,000 of its employees across its 16 plants in North America for several months.

“Unfortunately, as long as Ohio workers labor without the protections of a Right to Work law – which makes union affiliation and dues payment strictly voluntary – abuses of this nature will surely continue throughout the Buckeye State,” said Gleason.

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Atlanta Construction Workers Hit Union with Federal Charges After Being Slapped with $5,000 Retaliatory Fines for Nonunion Work

**Atlanta, GA (February 21, 2007)** — With free legal help from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, three local commercial insulation workers filed federal charges against a local union for refusing to honor their resignations from the union and threatening to fine them $5,000 each in retaliation for working for a nonunion employer.

Gonzalo Gomez, Ubaldo Romero, and Juan Perez, filed the parallel unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the International Association of Heat & Frost Insulators Local 48 union. The workers seek an injunction blocking any illegal fine collection proceedings initiated by union officials in state court because Romero and Perez have already been served with notices demanding payment of the unlawful fines.

“Union officials are abusing their power over workers to prevent them from earning a good living,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “It is unconscionable for union bosses to attempt to drive workers into the poorhouse in vicious retaliation for pursuing work opportunities at nonunion job sites.”

Insulator union officials told workers at a recent union meeting that they could not resign their union memberships unless they did so “correctly,” but failed to explain exactly what this meant. When asked what this meant, union officials replied simply that the employees had failed to resign “correctly.”

Gomez and his coworkers cannot be lawfully fined because they resigned their union memberships (and thus were no longer subject to internal union rules) before returning to work – their right under the Foundation-supported *Patternmakers v. NLRB* 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision. In *Patternmakers*, the High Court ruled workers may resign their full, formal union membership immediately, at any time, and without restrictions.

The NLRB is responsible for investigating the charges and will decide whether to prosecute the union for unfair labor practices.

Aside from violating the National Labor Relations Act, Insulator union officials’ actions also run contrary to the spirit of Georgia’s highly popular Right to Work law – on the books since 1947 – which prohibits forcing workers to join or pay dues to a union as a job condition.

The workers’ charges follow unfair labor practice charges filed recently by coworker Larry Blaisdell, who was similarly retaliated against by Insulator union officials for resigning his union membership and working for a nonunion employer.

Teamsters Union Faces Federal Charges for Illegal Strike Fines Levied Against Ryerson Employees

**Chicago, IL (December 19, 2006)** – A group of ten Joseph T. Ryerson & Son, Inc. employees filed a wave of federal charges against the Teamsters Local 714 union today after union officials vindictively fined them for refusing to walk off the job during a Teamsters-mandated strike.

The metal processing workers obtained free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation to file the unfair labor practice charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), because Teamsters union officials illegally failed to notify the workers of their right to refrain from formal union membership and then issued retaliatory fines – some over $1,000 apiece – for continuing to work during the strike in March of this year.

Because the Teamsters hierarchy unlawfully failed to inform the workers of their right to refrain from formal union membership and to object to paying for the union’s nonrepresentational activities, such as politics, the employees thus cannot be considered voluntary members – and are not legally subject to internal union disciplinary measures, such as strike fines.

“These Teamsters officials went to great lengths to intimidate and stifle dissent,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The union hierarchy has little regard for employees who want to support their families rather than toe the union line during an unpopular strike.”

The actions of Teamsters union officials violate employee rights recognized under the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court *Communications Workers v. Beck* decision. Under *Beck* and subsequent NLRB rulings, union officials must inform employees of their right to refrain from formal union membership and observe their right not to pay for costs unrelated to collective bargaining.

“Unfortunately, as long as Illinois workers labor without the protections of a Right to Work law – which makes union affiliation and dues payment strictly voluntary – abuses of this nature will surely continue throughout the Prairie State,” said Gleason.

Pottstown, PA (July 21, 2006) – In response to charges brought by two local workers with free legal help from the National Right to Work Foundation, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington, DC ordered the International Chemical Workers Union Council (ICWUC) Local 619C to retract threats against workers’ jobs intended to discourage them from continuing to work during a union-ordered strike against Cabot Supermetals in 2005. Both David Cameron and Walter Reigner, chemical workers at the Cabot Supermetals factory in Boyertown, lost their jobs in November 2005 as part of a union-negotiated strike settlement between Cabot and ICWUC union officials. In the agreement, union officials explicitly demanded that Cabot management fire Cameron and Reigner, in addition to two other similarly-situated employees, for exercising their legal right to resign their formal union memberships and continue working during the strike. Cabot then handed their jobs over to less skilled and less senior workers. The NLRB General Counsel issued a formal complaint in April, and agreed to prosecute the union for threatening to order workers fired. While the charges have awaited final resolution by the NLRB, Cabot has since rehired Reigner, but not Cameron. The General Counsel inexplicably refused to issue a complaint on the actual firings to bring the issue before the full NLRB. In issuing its order, the NLRB cited an illegal union posting that threatened all workers at the Cabot facility stating, “If you are thinking about crossing the line remember this; if we win an unfair labor practice and you crossed the line YOU will be looking for a job for you will not be working for ‘scabot’ and maybe not for any union shop!” “Union officials made an example of these workers to discourage others from refusing to toe the union line,” said Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason. “How the NLRB General Counsel can find the threats of firings to be illegal but, at the same time, fail to address whether making good on those threats is also illegal is beyond comprehension.” Cameron, Reigner, and their two colleagues exercised their right under the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Patternmakers v. NLRB to resign from formal union membership and continue working during a strike. The workers alleged that their firings violated the National Labor Relations Act and the duty of fair representation, which are supposed to protect employees from union retaliation or coercion.