Workers File Brief Opposing Union Boss Challenge to Indiana Right to Work Law

National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys provide free legal aid to workers defending law that ends union boss forced dues powers

Hammond, IN (March 2, 2012) – In response to union bosses' federal lawsuit against Indiana's popular Right to Work law, a group of Indiana workers from across the state are filing an amicus brief in support of their newly-enacted Right to Work freedoms.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, the four workers – David Bercot, a certified wastewater operator for ITR Concession Company which services Indiana toll road rest stops in the Fort Wayne-area; Joel Tibbetts, a Minteq International assistant manager in Valparaiso; Douglas Richards, an employee with Goshen-based Cequent Towing Products; and Larry Getts, a Dana Holding Corporation tube press technician in Albion – all joined in the brief defending the law.

Union officials publicly floated the idea of challenging Indiana's Right to Work law before it was enacted. International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 150 headquartered in suburban Chicago, Illinois filed a federal lawsuit late last month challenging the law and requesting an injunction against its implementation.

Both Bercot's and Tibbetts's workplaces are unionized by the IUOE Local 150 union hierarchy. Both workers have refrained from union membership but are still forced to accept IUOE Local 150 union officials' so-called "representation" and were required to pay dues to the union as a condition of employment before Indiana's Right to Work law was enacted.

Indiana is the nation's 23rd Right to Work state. Public polling shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans support the Right to Work principle, including 80 percent of union members.

Foundation attorneys have successfully defended state Right to Work laws in the past, including Oklahoma's. The Foundation's legal task force dedicated to defending Indiana's Right to Work law has already examined the union lawyers' lines of attack against the law and determined that the law is on sound legal ground. A Foundation attorney will attend the injunction hearing on Monday in Hammond.

"Union bosses want to undo what thousands of Hoosier citizens have worked hard to achieve over the past decade," said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. "Because union partisans cannot win the hearts and minds of Indiana's workers and voters, they seek to have the courts strike down Indiana’s popular Right to Work law for them."

In addition to defending the Right to Work law from spurious union legal challenges, Foundation staff attorneys are giving free legal aid to employees seeking to exercise their newfound Right to Work. Information about Indiana's Right to Work law, including how Indiana employees can exercise their Right to Work can be found on the Foundation's website: www.nrtw.org.