San Francisco, CA (May 18, 2012) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, six security guards have filed unfair labor practice charges for themselves and 11 others against Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 24/7. The 17 nonunion employees allege that SEIU officials forced them to pay more union dues than actual SEIU members in retaliation for filing earlier charges against the union.

The guards are all employed by Guard Maintenance Services Corporation, which is party to a monopoly bargaining agreement with Local 24/7. Because California lacks a Right to Work law making union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary, nonunion employees can be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment.

In February 2012, the guards reached a settlement with SEIU officials regarding an earlier round of unfair labor practice charges. The settlement required the union to provide employees with an audited breakdown of its expenditures and allow nonunion workers to opt out of paying for union activities unrelated to workplace bargaining.

Despite this agreement, union officials failed to provide the guards with any details about their expenditures and sent conflicting information about how much money they could be forced to pay. Union officials then raised the fee for nonunion employees to a level that exceeds the amount paid by full SEIU members; a move the guards allege was retaliation for the first round of unfair labor practice charges.

The guards’ charges will now be investigated by a regional office of the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency which administers private sector labor law.

“SEIU bosses are trying to keep nonunion workers in line by forcing them to pay more union dues than actual union members,” said Patrick Semmens, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The NLRB should put a stop to this illegal scheme immediately, but the best solution is a California Right to Work law, which would make union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary.”

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.