Group Home Workers Force SEIU Bosses into Forced Union Dues Refund
Right to Work Foundation attorneys continue to challenge illegal union membership “opt-out” policy
Princeton, WV (May 18, 2010) – Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199 union officials have agreed to a statewide settlement after six ResCare group home employees filed several unfair labor practice charges against them.
The employees, with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, challenged the SEIU District 1199 union’s forced dues policy, which violated Foundation-won employee rights upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in its landmark decision in Communication Workers of America v. Beck (1988).
In Beck, the Court held that union officials cannot lawfully compel nonmembers to pay the part of union dues spent for non-bargaining union boss activities like political activism, lobbying, and member-only events. The employees also challenged the SEIU union officials’ practice of requiring employees to object to paying full union dues multiple times in order to exercise their rights under Beck.
Under the settlement, SEIU District 1199 union bosses will mail notices to all ResCare employees in West Virginia detailing the employees’ rights to object to full-dues-paying union membership. Further, the settlement requires SEIU District 1199 union bosses to allow ResCare employees in Mercer County, who were told by SEIU officials to join or be fired, to retroactively rescind their union membership and to receive refunds of their forced union dues.
Meanwhile, National Right to Work Foundation attorneys and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Winston-Salem, North Carolina are scheduled to challenge the SEIU District 1199 union hierarchy’s “annual objection” policy before an NLRB administrative law judge in June. The SEIU District 1199 “annual objection” policy is clearly designed to force workers into making full union dues payments against their will.
Five NLRB administrative law judges around the country have held such union fee schemes unlawful.
“These six courageous workers have taken a stand for the rights of all ResCare employees in the Mountain State,” said Patrick Semmens, Director of Legal Information at National Right to Work. “Foundation attorneys will continue to pursue overturning the SEIU union bosses’ illegal membership policy, but West Virginia needs to pass a state Right to Work law making union dues payment completely voluntary in order to end these kinds of compulsory unionism abuses.”
Comments
union dues in the local 2000 of SEIU in the state of Missouri
I'm a nursing home worker and have had issues with the union dues policy at SEIU. I have address this issue for over 4 years. I have been told several different things. Like the members vote on dues, but I have worked for the same company for over 9yrs and been part of the same union. And have never had the opportunity to vote on my dues. But the company that I work for has received a letter from my local regarding union dues increment. We were never informed about this until I notices that once I received a raised from the company in 2006 that the union took more in dues. Like I said this was the first time that I was aware of the increment. When I went to payroll to ask about this I was shown a letter that payroll received from the union regarding the increment. I then went to the union to ask questions about the dues. At this point I was given the run around about this issue. I was told that all Nursing Homes under the local was under this guide line. So then I went to other Nursing Homes to see if they were ask to pay the same. And NO they were not. I then went back to the union and ask that my nursing home dues increment stop being increase until this matter was looked into. It has been 4 years since then. My local has been trustee, due to miss management and still my issue with dues has not been address. I have brought this issue back up with the new Trustee appointed person so that it could be discuss.
Your Truly,
Sheryl Fikes