Denver, CO (November 23, 2011) – An Interstate Bakeries employee from Ponca City, Oklahoma has filed a brief in federal court asking the court to uphold repeated decisions in his favor against Teamster union workplace discrimination.
With continued free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation, Interstate Bakeries employee Kirk Rammage filed the brief Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Rammage was the single nonunion sales representative with Dolly Madison for over 15 years before his division was merged in 2005 with Wonder Bread/Hostess. Although the company initially wanted to retain Rammage and protect his seniority during the merger, Teamsters Local 523 union bosses demanded that union members receive preferential treatment, putting Rammage at the bottom of the seniority roster despite his workplace tenure. The company later caved into the union bosses’ demand.
At Interstate Bakeries, seniority increases employees’ chances of securing desirable sales routes. By insisting that Rammage lose his seniority, Teamster officials effectively signaled that union workers took priority over their nonunion colleagues. As a result, Rammage was forced to commute to a new work location more than 70 miles away.
After Rammage filed federal charges against the union, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) – a federal agency charged with administering private sector labor law – ruled against a Teamster workplace policy that discriminated against nonunion workers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the NLRB’s decision. Those rulings were later nullified by the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds that the Board lacked a three member quorum at the time of the decision.
The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit then remanded the case to the NLRB. Once the Board had a quorum, the NLRB revisited the facts of the case and again concluded that Teamster officials broke the law by discriminating against employees based on their union representation status.
Teamster union lawyers are now appealing the NLRB’s most recent decision back to the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
“Teamster bosses are using any means necessary to discriminate against a nonunion worker because he had the temerity not to associate with their union,” said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director for the National Right to Work Foundation. “Teamster union bosses apparently need to be told time and time again that they need to respect all workers’ rights, including those workers who want nothing to do with the union bosses’ so-called representation.”
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.
