Obama NLRB to South Carolina Boeing Employees: “You Have No Stake in Your Jobs”

National Right to Work Foundation attorneys continue to help workers save their jobs from union boss power grab

Washington, DC (June 9, 2011) – A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge in San Francisco denied three Charleston-area Boeing employees’ request to intervene in the NLRB’s high-profile case against Boeing Company (NYSE: BA). The judge also denied the employees’ request to file an amicus curiae brief in the case.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, the group of North Charleston Boeing employees whose jobs are in jeopardy sought to have their say in the NLRB’s unprecedented case targeting Boeing for locating production in South Carolina in part due to its popular Right to Work law.

The NLRB’s complaint, if successful, would eliminate over 1,000 existing jobs in South Carolina, not to mention several thousand more jobs that would be created once the Boeing plant reaches full production capacity. Further, the case could set a dangerous precedent that gives union officials a new tool to dictate where job providers locate their facilities.

Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work, issued the following statement in the wake of the judge’s ruling:

"It is unbelievable that the judge bought the General Counsel’s argument that the employees do not have a ‘legitimate direct interest’ in saving their jobs. This is yet another example of a misguided federal labor policy that favors Big Labor and Big Business despite the flowery language about employee rights.

Read the entire release here.

Indianapolis, IN (May 19, 2011) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, WRTV anchor Patricia Shepherd has filed federal unfair labor practice charges against the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) union.

Shepherd’s charges allege that AFTRA officials demanded she pay dues despite the fact that she is not a union member and the union has not had a contract with her employer for the past two years.

Because Indiana lacks a Right to Work law, employees can be forced to pay union dues for the purposes of workplace bargaining just to get or keep a job. In recent months, Indiana legislators were considering a law to make union dues payments strictly voluntary, but Governor Mitch Daniels and House Speaker Brian Bosma, despite strong majorities on record in favor of a Right to Work bill in both chambers of the state legislature, ultimately killed the legislation.

In this case, the AFTRA union has not had a contract with WRTV since March 2009 and therefore is not entitled to collect dues for negotiations with management. Moreover, the last contract between the union and the television station indicated that joining AFTRA or paying union dues was not a condition of employment at WRTV.

Although the union’s own contract includes language stating that dues payment is not a condition of employment, AFTRA officials continue to insist that Shepherd pay union dues. The union has gone so far as to refer Shepherd’s name to a professional collections agency in Pennsylvania.

Shepherd’s charges will now be investigated by the National Labor Relations Board.

“The decision by Speaker Bosma and Governor Daniels to block a vote on an Indiana Right to Work law means that union bosses will continue to order employees fired for refusing to pay union dues,” said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director for the National Right to Work Foundation. “In this case, union officials broke the law by attempting to collect dues without a valid forced unionism clause, but other Indiana union bosses are still empowered to collect hundreds of millions of dollars from workers who face termination if they don’t pay up.”

Semmens continued: “Ultimately, a Right to Work law for the Hoosier State would be the best way to end this injustice, ensuring that union membership and dues payment are strictly voluntary.”

Washington, DC (May 23, 2011) – With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a Maryland county government employee is asking a federal court to stop the Obama Administration from allowing union bosses to conceal lavish and corrupt union expenditures from workers.

Chris Mosquera, a member of a Municipal County Government Employee Local of the United Food and Commercial Worker (UFCW) union, filed the lawsuit against Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for rescinding a union boss disclosure rule which would make it less difficult for workers to hold union officials accountable.

Unions covered by the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) with total annual receipts of $250,000 or more are currently required to submit annual financial statements to the U.S. Department of Labor. LM-2 forms are the public disclosure documents for these larger unions and are available online on the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) website.

These forms have helped workers and citizen activists expose many unscrupulous union boss schemes, including lavish benefits to high-ranking union officials and loyalists, superfluous spending on union boss transportation (including private jets), and shady political spending (such as the Service Employees International Union bosses’ links to the disgraced political organization ACORN).

Mosquera seeks to intervene for the millions of workers who are forced by federal mandate to accept union boss “representation” and pay union dues or fees to a union in order to get or keep their jobs.

The lawsuit alleges that Solis exceeded her power as Secretary of Labor by repealing a January 2009 LM-2 Final Rule because the rule put a “burden” on union officials to report their expenditures to the public. However, under federal law, Solis cannot use “burden” as a justification for rescission of a rule. Solis further overstepped her legal authority by singlehandedly creating a new rule that allows union bosses to more easily evade and circumvent the LMRDA.

The Right to Work Foundation also has a federal lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the DOL over a Freedom of Information Act request for internal DOL communications and communications with union officials concerning the LM-2 rule change.

“Once again the Obama Administration puts union boss priorities ahead of the rights and well-being of individual employees,” said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. “Hilda Solis apparently believes that not only should union bosses have the power to compel workers to pay union dues and fees as a condition of employment, but that those same union bosses should be able to keep workers in the dark about how those forced union dues and fees are spent.”

Milwaukee, WI (May 31, 2011) – A U.S. Bank customer service and support employee reached a settlement with local union officials last week after union officials illegally attempted to force him and his colleagues into full-dues-paying union membership.

Peter Quinones of Milwaukee filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 777 union officials in March with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation.

After AFSCME Local 777 union bosses were granted monopoly bargaining privileges over approximately 300 U.S. Bank employees, Quinones sent a letter to union officials stating that he was exercising his right under National Right to Work Foundation-won Supreme Court precedent in Communication Workers v. Beck to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership.

Because Wisconsin is a forced unionism state, workers who refrain from formal union membership can still be forced to pay part of union dues, but cannot be compelled to pay the portion used for the union’s political, lobbying, and member-only activities.

Despite his letter, AFSCME Local 777 union officials continued to extract full union dues from Quinones’ paycheck. After he filed an unfair labor practice charge, union officials still refused to honor his request to exercise his legal rights. Quinones then filed another charge to prevent the union hierarchy from requiring him to pay forced union fees by automatic deduction from his paycheck in violation of federal law. The latest charge forced AFSCME Local 777 union officials to finally settle the case.

In the settlement, union officials agreed to reimburse all union dues illegally seized from Quinones’ and his coworkers’ paychecks and to post a notice in the workplace informing the workers of their rights to refrain from union membership and object to funding union boss political activities.

“Despite this legal victory for U.S. Bank employees in Milwaukee, workers across the Badger State are still being forced to pay for union boss political activism,” said Patrick Semmens, National Right to Work legal information director. “Wisconsin’s workers badly need a Right to Work law to help them protect their rights against unscrupulous union boss spending.”

If passed, a Wisconsin Right to Work law would end compulsory union dues by making union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary. Polls consistently show that 8 in 10 Americans support the Right to Work principle, that no worker should be compelled to join a union or pay union dues to get or keep a job. Twenty-two states already have Right to Work protections for their workers.

Washington, DC (June 2, 2011) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a group of Charleston-area Boeing Company employees are asking to intervene in the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) unprecedented case targeting Boeing (NYSE: BA) for locating production in South Carolina in part due to its popular Right to Work law. That law ensures that union dues and membership are strictly voluntary.

The NLRB’s complaint, if successful, would eliminate over 1,000 existing jobs in South Carolina, not to mention several thousand more jobs that would be created once the Boeing plant reaches full production capacity. Further, the case could set a dangerous precedent that allows union bosses to dictate where job providers locate their facilities.

In 2009, Boeing, after experiencing repeated International Association of Machinists (IAM) union boss-instigated strikes in the forced unionism state of Washington, decided to locate a new production line for the 787 Dreamliner to South Carolina, partly because South Carolina is a Right to Work state. IAM union bosses in state of Washington cried foul and filed unfair labor practice charges against Boeing.

The NLRB’s Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon sided with IAM union bosses and decided to prosecute Boeing in late April. Ironically, workers in Boeing’s South Carolina plant booted IAM union bosses from their plant to attract the Dreamliner production, as the workers did not want union bosses interfering with their job prospects.

Boeing employees Dennis Murray, who led the effort to remove the union from the Charleston plant; Cynthia Ramaker, the former president with the local union which was removed from the plant; and Meredith Going filed their motion to intervene in the case with the NLRB regional office in Seattle, where the NLRB’s case is pending.

"This case is nothing more than an attack by the Obama Administration on Right to Work laws and all workers in Right to Work states where employees cannot be forced to pay union dues as a condition of getting or keeping a job," said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. "Workers in South Carolina should not be denied the opportunity to continue providing for their families to satisfy the outrageous forced unionism demands of union officials in Washington state."

"The National Labor Relations Board’s complaint is just the latest giveaway to Big Labor by an Obama Administration that has already erased union financial disclosure requirements and kept workers in the dark about the right to refrain from union membership, and is poised to eliminate workers’ ability to challenge a coercive card check campaign with a secret ballot vote," added Mix. "Once again the Obama Labor Board is putting union boss priorities ahead of the rights and well-being of individual employees."

To read the employees’ motion to intervene and their personal declarations supporting the motion, click here (pdf).

Washington, DC (June 8, 2011) – Yesterday, Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon, International Association of Machinist (IAM) union lawyers, and Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) attorneys responded to a motion filed by three North Charleston Boeing employees seeking to intervene in the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) case against Boeing.

The North Charleston employees are receiving free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The NLRB’s complaint, if successful, would almost certainly eliminate thousands of jobs in South Carolina, including those of the three Boeing workers represented by Foundation attorneys.

Foundation President Mark Mix released the following statement in response to the Acting General Counsel’s and IAM union lawyers’ opposition to the employees’ motion:

“Acting General Counsel Solomon’s and the IAM union lawyers’ opposition to the Charleston employees’ motion to intervene in the NLRB’s persecution of Boeing is a slap in the face of all independent-minded American workers and citizens who support duly-enacted Right to Work laws in their states that protect employees’ choice over whether or not to financially support a union.

“Solomon’s argument that the South Carolina workers have no stake in the shutdown of the facility in which they are employed is a disingenuous attempt to silence workers whose very livelihoods are in jeopardy. This is a bald-faced lie of Weiner-esque proportions.

“Essentially, what Solomon and IAM union officials want is for workers to sit down and shut up, even though their jobs are on the line and their rights are at issue.

“The opposition of Solomon and IAM union bosses to these courageous employees’ attempt to save their jobs and their community is just another cynical action by Big Labor and its political cronies to silence independent-minded workers and further empower union bosses to force more workers to submit to union boss demands and forced dues payment.”

In contrast, Boeing attorneys filed a brief supporting the employees’ intervention in the case, observing that “[the intervening employees] have a direct interest in the outcome of the case.”

Washington, DC (June 9, 2011) – A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge in San Francisco denied three Charleston-area Boeing employees’ request to intervene in the NLRB’s high-profile case against Boeing Company (NYSE: BA). The judge also denied the employees’ request to file an amicus curiae brief in the case.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, the group of North Charleston Boeing employees whose jobs are in jeopardy sought to have their say in the NLRB’s unprecedented case targeting Boeing for locating production in South Carolina in part due to its popular Right to Work law.

The NLRB’s complaint, if successful, would eliminate over 1,000 existing jobs in South Carolina, not to mention several thousand more jobs that would be created once the Boeing plant reaches full production capacity. Further, the case could set a dangerous precedent that gives union officials a new tool to dictate where job providers locate their facilities.

Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work, issued the following statement in the wake of the judge’s ruling:

"It is unbelievable that the judge bought the General Counsel’s argument that the employees do not have a ‘legitimate direct interest’ in saving their jobs. This is yet another example of a misguided federal labor policy that favors Big Labor and Big Business despite the flowery language about employee rights.

"The Obama NLRB has no concern for the little guy or America’s working families. They are simply and directly focused on expanding the forced unionism power of the union boss elite.

"The NLRB is poised to set a dangerous precedent that would allow union bosses to dictate to job providers where to locate their jobs, of course, with the aim of avoiding states with Right to Work protections for their workers at all costs and forcing more workers into union-dues-paying ranks.

"Foundation staff attorneys plan to appeal this ruling immediately and continue to explore other legal measures to help these Boeing employees save their jobs and to prevent the devastating effects the NLRB’s actions will have on the Charleston community and the American free enterprise system."

For more information, please visit https://www.nrtw.org/en/boeing.

Washington, DC (June 15, 2011) – A Charleston-area Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) employee has filed a federal unfair labor practice charge against the union behind the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) high-profile case against Boeing. The employee filed the charge with the NLRB regional office in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on Wednesday with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation.

The charge is in response to the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union and its Local 751 abusing federal labor policy – which is supposedly intended to help workers protect their rights – to bully Boeing for locating a new production line for 787 Dreamliner airplanes in South Carolina, partly because South Carolina is a Right to Work state.

The charge spells out how IAM union bosses are retaliating against the South Carolina employees by abusing the legal process to attempt to eliminate the jobs of over 1,000 Boeing employees in the Charleston area after the workers at the Dreamliner plant expelled the IAM from their workplace before the production line was located there.

The IAM Local 751 union’s charges – which spurred NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon to file a complaint against Boeing – would eliminate over 1,000 existing jobs in South Carolina if successful, not to mention several thousand more jobs that would be created once the Boeing plant reaches full production capacity.

The workers in Boeing’s South Carolina plant booted IAM union bosses from their plant to help attract the Dreamliner production, as the workers did not want union bosses interfering with their job prospects. The charge against the union points out that if the IAM union hierarchy still had a presence in the South Carolina plant, then the South Carolina workers’ jobs would not be at risk.

“Workers should be free to choose whether or not to affiliate with a union and not have to worry about their jobs as a result,” said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. “National Right to Work is proud to stand with the courageous employees as they fight to save their jobs and prevent the devastating effects the IAM union bosses’ and the NLRB’s actions will have on their community and workers across the country.”

National Right to Work Foundation attorneys filed the charge for Boeing employee Dennis Murray, who led the effort to remove the union from the Charleston plant. Foundation attorneys also represent Murray; Cynthia Ramaker, the former president of the IAM local union which was removed from the plant; and employee Meredith Going, Sr. with a motion to intervene in the NLRB’s case against Boeing. The employees’ motion is currently pending appeal with the NLRB in Washington, D.C.

For more information, visit https://www.nrtw.org/boeing.

South Carolina Boeing Employee Hits Machinist Union with Federal Charge for Illegal Retaliation

Machinist union bosses expelled from workplace trying to eliminate workers’ jobs in retaliation

Washington, DC (June 15, 2011) – A Charleston-area Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) employee has filed a federal unfair labor practice charge against the union behind the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) high-profile case against Boeing. The employee filed the charge with the NLRB regional office in Wilmington, North Carolina on Wednesday with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation.

The charge is in response to the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union and its Local 751 abusing federal labor policy – which is supposedly intended to help workers protect their rights – to bully Boeing for locating a new production line for 787 Dreamliner airplanes in South Carolina, partly because South Carolina is a Right to Work state.

The charge spells out how IAM union bosses are retaliating against the South Carolina employees by abusing the legal process to attempt to eliminate the jobs of over 1,000 Boeing employees in the Charleston area after the workers at the Dreamliner plant expelled the IAM from their workplace before the production line was located there.

The IAM Local 751 union’s charges – which spurred NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon to file a complaint against Boeing – would eliminate over 1,000 existing jobs in South Carolina if successful, not to mention several thousand more jobs that would be created once the Boeing plant reaches full production capacity.

Read the entire release here.

For more information, visit https://www.nrtw.org/boeing.

Washington, DC (June 20, 2011) – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington, D.C. has ruled three Charleston-area Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) employees are allowed to intervene, albeit minimally, in the NLRB’s high-profile case against Boeing.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, North Charleston Boeing employees Dennis Murray, Cynthia Ramaker, and Meredith Going, Sr. filed a motion earlier this month to intervene in the NLRB’s unprecedented case targeting the company for locating production of some of its 787 Dreamliner airplanes in South Carolina, in part due to its popular Right to Work law.

An NLRB Administrative Law Judge in San Francisco denied the workers’ request and the workers were forced to file an emergency appeal with the national Board in Washington, D.C. The Board in D.C. has ruled that the employees can only file a brief in the case once the hearings, occurring in Seattle, Washington, are concluded.

Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work, issued the following statement in the wake of the Board’s ruling:

“The Obama Labor Board is poised to set a dangerous precedent that would allow union bosses to dictate to job providers where to locate their jobs with the aim, of course, of avoiding states with Right to Work protections for their workers and forcing more workers into union-dues-paying ranks.

“The public outcry regarding the NLRB’s renegade, pro-forced-unionism actions – spearheaded by the NLRB’s Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon – thus far has forced the NLRB to try to save face, but the ruling still leaves much to be desired.

“The NLRB’s half measure is just a ploy to quietly sweep these workers’ stories under the rug while allowing the forced unionism advocates on the Board to try to appear they are not ignoring the workers in this case.

“The Board’s ruling is a further injustice to these workers, allowing only a minimal role in a case so vital to their job prospects and the Charleston community at large. Once again the Obama Labor Board is putting union boss priorities ahead of the rights and well-being of individual employees.

“Foundation staff attorneys plan to pursue all legal options to ensure that the rights of Charleston-area Boeing employees, and America’s independent-minded workers, are protected against the encroaching expansion of forced unionism.”

Late last week, Foundation attorneys also filed a federal unfair labor practice charge for Boeing employee Dennis Murray. This charge alleges that the union unlawfully retaliated against Charleston Boeing workers for removing the union from their facility. The NLRB regional office in Winston-Salem, North Carolina is investigating the charge.

For more information, visit https://www.nrtw.org/boeing.