Engineer Union Officials Seek IN Worker’s Firing Three Times for Refusal to Join

John Powell — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:19:15 -0500

Currently, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys are helping Minteq International employee Joel Tibbetts fight union intimidation at his workplace.

Tibbetts, a steel mill worker, turned to the Right to Work Foundation for free legal help after International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 union officials threatened to have Tibbetts fired three separate times in three months over the summer after he refused to join the union.

After the third termination threat, Tibbetts tried to join the union out of fear of losing his job. But IUOE union officials rejected his application since Tibbetts wrote that he was joining “under protest” on his union membership forms.

In retaliation, IUOE union officials told Tibbetts instead that his forced dues would amount to a sum greater than the amount Tibbetts would owe as a regular union member.

In response, Right to Work attorneys filed federal charges against the IUOE Local 150 union on behalf of Tibbetts. The charges highlight that the IUOE union’s failure to provide Tibbetts of adequate notice his rights under the 1988 Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Communications Workers v. Beck case.

Tibbetts’ struggle underscores why employees in the Hoosier state need a Right to Work law, which would make union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary.