Right to Work attorneys helped Montana timber trucker Michael Weller file federal charges against the Teamsters Local 2 after union officials unlawfully ordered him to pay hundreds of dollars in forced dues.

When Weller exercised his rights under Beck, Teamsters union officials responded by illegally threatening to have him fired from his job.

The Daily Inter Lake quoted Weller:

“It’s the principle of the matter. What prompted this was them threatening my job. I’m not real big on people threatening me.”

Following up with 10-year veteran timber trucker Michael Weller was a statement in this article in the Flathead Beacon today that might have mislead some readers:

“As a non-union member in an industry where many of his colleagues join the union, Weller receives the benefits of increased pay when wage agreements are worked out through collective bargaining by the union.”

The Flathead Beacon misses the point. Weller, who works in a forced unionism state, is required to pay for the cost of unwanted monopoly bargaining – despite the fact he doesn’t formally belong to the union in the first place. The article did highlight, however:

“Weller paid the charges out of fear of losing his job…”

All too often, workers in states without Right to Work laws are forced to pay for monopoly bargaining.

When an employee is forced to pay dues to a union in order to get or keep a job, it’s hardly accurate to call that a “benefit.”

The threat of union violence continues to plague hard-working Americans across the country.

A story published in Alabama’s Times Daily highlights a rare instance where a judge actually issued a restraining order against a union. This recent incident involves North Alabama Building and Construction Trades Council and International Association of Machinists (IAM) union militants who targeted employees (and members of the Steelworkers union) who returned to work during a strike. At least one union militant dove onto a car entering the Wise Alloy worksite:

“…the employees attempted to return to their jobs Tuesday morning. Wise officials said Steelworkers union employees were being intimidated at the employee entrance to the plant by employees who are still on strike.”

“Wise officials also reported, however, that a former employee, who was demonstrating in the picket line, dived onto the hood of a vehicle that was entering the plant.”

Of course, it is common for union militants to ignore restraining orders in the rare instances they are issued.

If you or someone in your family has been a victim of union violence or intimidation, call the Foundation toll-free at 1-800-336-3600 or write to legal@nrtw.org and ask to speak with an attorney.

With no Right to Work law on the books, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a struggling, forced unionism state.

Ryan Mellinger is a young, full-time math teacher in a Pennsylvania public school district. He never joined the union which holds monopoly bargaining privileges over the district’s teachers, but he is still required to pay the $394 annually in forced dues, or lose his job.

And all Mellinger wants is to decide on his own how he could save or spend his $394 as he sees fit. FrontPage Magazine highlights:

“Pennsylvania is the state that gave birth to freedom and individual liberty, but it has turned its back on its heritage regarding compulsory union fees. Compulsory membership and fees affect not only teachers but thousands of workers throughout Pennsylvania in a variety of businesses that have union contracts. The results are an economic disaster.”

In order to highlight the impact of compulsory unionism in education in America today, the National Right to Work Foundation established a special project, Concerned Educators Against Forced Unionism (CEAFU). For over 30 years, CEAFU has helped to ensure that union officials respect the individual rights of independent educators.

Check out the CEAFU website here to see the negative impact of compulsory unionism on education.

Laborers' International Union of North America Local 79 union thugs are back at it again.

New Jersey residents Joseph Chetrit and his family have been targets of a LIUNA union intimidation campaign for weeks.

Chetrit explained that union militants “have been abusive and confrontational to his family” after they placed the infamous 15-foot inflatable rat outside his home. In what they described as going through a “gauntlet” to leave their own property, Chetrit and his family (including his wife and their four children) cannot even walk to their synagogue without fear for their safety.

Sadly, one of Chetrit’s children is seeing a counselor as a result of the union’s ugly intimidation campaign. Meanwhile, a judge agreed with Chetrit that “[i]t is the hostile placement immediately adjacent to the home, towering over the sidewalk, directly facing the home, with the rat's claws and teeth bared, that creates the intimidating and menacing effect.”

NorthJersey.com has the full story here.

A new study conducted by the National Institute for Labor RelationsResearch (NILRR) explains how monopolistic teacher unionism is undercutting math and science education across America.

Stan Greer, senior research associate at NILRR, discusses entrenched teacher union officials and their influence over the “single salary schedule” used to determine teacher pay rates:

And teacher union officials have so far been very successful in blocking significant reforms of the single salary schedule because of state and local public policies authorizing them to act as the “exclusive” (monopoly) bargaining agents of all the K-12 teachers in a school district.

Visit the NILRR’s website here and download the full report here.

It’s no secret that The Wolverine state is a high-taxed, forced unionism state. Without a Right to Work law on the books, Michigan is lumped with 27 other states in the nation that force hard-working Americans to pay tribute to a union in order to get or keep a job.

Another economic analyst recently pointed out that most of Michigan’s economic woes are a result of Big Labor’s stranglehold over worker free choice and argued the state will be better off with a Right to Work law.

The Midland Daily News pointed out the economic benefits of Right to Work laws:

In 2005 and 2006, nine of the 10 fastest-growing states had Right to Work laws and, in the longer haul, from 1986 to 2006, eight of the fastest-growing states had such laws in force.

Read more about Right to Work laws here.

A leftist University of Florida history professor named Robert Zieger dutifully lapped up the AFL-CIO’s latest talking points and lambasted the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for its rulings on a handful of high-profile cases this fall.

Of course, Zieger failed to acknowledge that George W. Bush’s labor board has actually done very little to correct the many atrocities of Bill Clinton’s NLRB – which increased union coercive power over employees, entrenched unions in workplaces without the majority support of employees, and allowed for the rampant misuse of forced union dues for politics.

National Right to Work Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason responded to Zieger in this column at the Gainesville Sun:

Despite the histrionics of Zieger and others, Big Labor is indeed winning its overall war against employees who wish to remain union-free. And President Bush's NLRB has sadly been, for the most part, AWOL.