Dublin, Virginia (March 17, 2008) – Workers targeted by a campaign of union retaliation for continuing to do their jobs during the strike against Volvo Truck have obtained free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and today filed a formal document request under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act. The employees seek information about how the Pulaski Police Department handled complaints about police officers who refused to carry out their public duties as a result of apparent conflicts of interest.

One employee victim specifically objects to a false statement that Police Chief Gary W. Roche made to the Associated Press in which Roche "totally, completely, categorically" denied that officers had refused to file police reports because they had friends and family members participating in the United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike. To the contrary, chief Roche apparently knew of at least one such incident where it required a complaint by Drema Dominguez’s neighbor to the police department and to a local television station to cause Police Sergeant Anderson to “correct” Officer Quesenberry.

"Sadly, this situation has resulted in a law enforcement officer falsely attacking the honesty of a woman who tried to report a crime, instead of seeking out the criminals," wrote National Right to Work Foundation Staff Attorney Derek Poteet in his March 17 letter to Chief Roche.

Virginia State law makes it a crime to "attempt to interfere with another in the exercise of his Right to Work… or by the use of insulting or threatening language directed toward such person, to induce or attempt to induce him to quit his employment or refrain from seeking employment."

"Since the strike began, there have been numerous instances of nails being placed in the driveways of Volvo employees who continue to work. The union’s insulting and threatening language on the picket line was being constantly directed at Volvo workers, to attempt to induce them to quit, and it was obscene and explicit. Obscenity is not protected speech. The display of open coffins, labeled “scab,” is a blatant union endorsement of violence against these honest, hard-working citizens.

"Employees’ windshields have been smashed and tires slashed. Union militants have been stalking my clients and terrifying their children. Certain union militants are terrorizing law-abiding citizens and their families, and it is my understanding that even though some have been caught in the act, no one has been charged," continued Poteet.

Poteet demanded an apology from Chief Roche for essentially calling his client a liar in the press, or to let her know that he was misquoted. He further asked Roche to contact the Associated Press to disavow that statement. And finally, Poteet requested under the Freedom of Information Act copies of all records and communications regarding actions taken to discipline Officer Quesenberry or any other officers for misconduct, and "what steps you will be taking to ensure that the laws of Virginia are enforced by your department, including by officers who happen to have family members or friends who have participated in the strike."

"[Your] false public statement to the media, combined with the failure to enforce Virginia law, only emboldens union militants to engage in increasingly aggressive attacks against workers during and after this Volvo strike – and in the future," wrote Poteet.

Dublin, Virginia (March 13, 2008) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation today called on the Virginia Attorney General to investigate “ethical and professional breaches” by local police who actually chastised non-striking workers for exercising their constitutionally protected Right to Work rather than investigate the ongoing union harassment and property destruction they face.

A group of Pulaski County Volvo workers contacted the Foundation for help late last week after suffering a variety of retaliation tactics simply for showing up for work to support their families during a United Auto Workers (UAW) strike.

Employees have been targeted with smashed windows, derogatory signs, cut tires, nails in their driveways, sugar in their gas tanks, and more. Driving into work, as documented by local media reports, employees also had to pass a coffin labeled “all scabs welcome here,” as well as endure picketers spitting on their cars, making obscene and sexual gestures at them, and racist and sexist slurs.

Despite this, at least one employee claims that a police officer, who apparently had family or friends in the UAW union, refused to file a police report and instead publicly lectured her for “crossing the picket line” when she reported an alleged crime perpetrated by union operatives.

Foundation Staff Attorney Derek Poteet wrote to Attorney General Robert McDonnell: “…law enforcement officers have claimed to have no evidence that union members are involved. However, I have learned that law enforcement officers have, in some instances, actually caught the perpetrators only to release them with a warning, without further investigation or fingerprinting… [This is] a ‘catch and release’ attitude toward union violence.”

He continued: “If no action is taken, those who committed these crimes will have succeeded in making an example to thwart others from exercising their constitutionally protected Right to Work in the future, perceiving that the law will not protect them.”

The National Right to Work Foundation has come to the aid of many victims of union intimidation and violence, including victims of UAW harassment in Winchester, Virginia. The Foundation helped Vietnamese immigrant Schucheng Huang after union militants vandalized her car with paint, smashed her car windows, and placed a severed, bloody cow’s head on the hood of her car. Huang and other victims of union violence won an undisclosed monetary settlement in 2001.

Hartford, CT (March 6, 2008) – A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge has heeded a Colt Manufacturing employee’s request to strike down a nationwide union policy intended to stonewall employees from obtaining a reduction of their forced union dues.

With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, George Gally, a nearly 50-year veteran Colt employee, originally filed unfair labor practice charges at the NLRB in March 2003. Gally challenged the United Auto Worker (UAW) union’s nationwide policy. The policy forced non-union members to object annually if they did not want to fund union political and other non-bargaining activities.

The ruling requires the UAW union to “cease and desist” from requiring employees to object annually, as well as notify all non-member employees across America that it will not subject them to this burdensome process. The UAW union must also post notices at certain union halls and publish a notice in a forthcoming “Solidarity” newsletter.

In the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court CWA v. Beck decision, the court affirmed that workers have the right to refrain from formal union membership but can still be forced to pay a reduced fee for union monopoly bargaining in their workplaces. But UAW officials have tried to hinder employees from getting their dues reduction by requiring them to renew their objections every year.

In issuing the ruling, Administrative Law Judge Joel Biblowitz noted that, “Further, the [union] Respondents do not require yearly renewals of union membership cards, dues authorization checkoff cards or notice of resignation from the union. Yearly renewals are only required of Beck objectors, and the Respondents have not satisfactorily explained this inconsistency.”

“UAW officials have fought tooth and nail to hamstring employees wishing to exercise their legal rights,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “This outrageous situation underscores why the best solution to the misuse of compulsory union dues is a Right to Work law. Ending forced unionism would make union affiliation and dues payment strictly voluntary.”

George Gally has endured 17 years of illegal conduct by UAW officials. In December 2003, ALJ Biblowitz awarded Gally nearly $31,000 in compensation plus interest for pay lost after he was illegally fired for non-payment of forced dues at the order of UAW Local 376 union officials in 1991. Subsequent to his damage award, Gally filed this separate unfair labor practice charge challenging the UAW union officials’ annual objection scheme.

Washington, D.C. (February 19, 2008) — The U.S. Supreme Court has today granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys for a group of twenty Maine state employees objecting to the misuse of their compulsory union dues.

The case, Daniel Locke et al. v. Edward Karass et al., will directly address whether non-union employees can be forced to pay for litigation activities far removed from their workplaces. But the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling may provide much-needed clarity to the criteria it had established previously that determine what union activities employees can be lawfully forced to fund.

Unions spend billions of dollars each year on activities such as politics, organizing, litigation, lobbying, and a wide range of other ideological and non-bargaining activities. Yet, union officials often claim that non-union members must foot the bill for these activities or be fired from their jobs.

“No one should be compelled to pay union dues just to get or keep a job,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “But where union officials have obtained this special privilege from the legislature, they still have no legal authority to make non-union public servants in Maine pay for union activity across America.”

Locke is the 14th case brought by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Las Vegas, NV (February 5, 2008) — Under threat of a federal court appeal, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) this week reversed itself and authorized a local worker to claim over $100,000 in damages after International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 720 union officials illegally discriminated against him.

Union brass had unlawfully expelled the employee from an exclusive union hiring hall, denied him the ability to obtain work, and offered him no means of reinstatement.

The ruling comes in a case brought by Las Vegas-area worker Steven Lucas, with free legal help from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys. Lucas is an audio-visual equipment technician employed in the Las Vegas trade show and convention industry.

In June 2007, the NLRB in Washington, DC, upheld a preliminary ruling by NLRB Region 28 in Las Vegas allowing Lucas to reclaim only about $16,000 in lost wages from one job due to the unlawful union discrimination. In reality, union officials’ illegal blackballing of Lucas from getting work from more than a dozen employers during 1995 and 1996 had cost him many times that amount.

The Lucas case has been a major source of embarrassment for the NLRB since the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals several years ago reprimanded the agency and forced it to pay attorneys’ fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) because its position in an earlier phase of the case was “not substantially justified.”

“The prospect of even more embarrassment for the NLRB in enabling this outrageous union discrimination forced the agency’s hand,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Even in a Right to Work state where payment of union dues is voluntary, union officials use their monopoly bargaining power to punish workers that don’t toe the union line.”

Lucas was a union member from 1981-1992 and used the hiring hall until 1994, when union officials illegally and arbitrarily expelled him from the hiring hall. By not allowing Lucas to be reinstated in the hiring hall, IATSE union officials denied him work opportunities for a period of roughly 18 months.

Even though Nevada has a highly popular and effective Right to Work law that frees nonunion employees from paying membership dues to an unwanted union, IATSE union officials use their monopoly bargaining privileges to set up “exclusive hiring halls.” In such halls, union officials decide which employees to refer for work at conventions and trade shows, and workers are forced to pay money to the union to be eligible for work.

The January/February 2008 Foundation Action newsletter is now available!

In this issue:

• Right to Work Foundation Helps Secure High Court Review
• Right to Work Foundation Launches New Cutting-Edge Website
• Congress Complains About Foundation Legal Victories
• Discriminatory Union Objection Procedure Smacked Down Again
• Foundation Helps Nurses Fight Illegal Retaliation
• Laidlaw Transit Drivers Kick Unwanted Union Off the Bus

Download the January/February 2008 Foundation Action PDF here.

St. Louis, MO (January 23, 2008) – Overcoming months of union stonewalling, federal officials today announced KV Pharmaceutical Company (NYSE:KV-A) employees have voted 89-46 to remove an unpopular Teamsters union local from their workplace.

Teamsters Local 688 has been booted as the employees’ “exclusive bargaining representative” and may no longer act as a middleman between the employees and management. The employees received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation in overcoming months of delays at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and legal challenges by Teamsters union lawyers who tried to stonewall the results of the vote.

Calbert Edwards and his KV Pharma coworkers obtained the secret ballot “decertification” vote after gaining signatures from an overwhelming majority of employees at the pharmaceutical giant. However, after the election was held in November, the NLRB Regional Director indefinitely impounded the ballots, leaving the employees without their election results.

Teamsters Local 688 lawyers had delayed the counting of ballots by filing “blocking charges” at the NLRB. They alleged that the company tried to entice the employees to vote against the Teamsters union by promising better benefits if the Teamsters union was voted out.

But, with help from attorneys at the National Right to Work Foundation, Edwards and his coworkers petitioned the NLRB to proceed. Consequently, in early January the NLRB Regional Director granted the request – dismissing the Teamsters union’s charges – and ordered the ballots counted. As a result of the employees’ decertification victory, KV Pharma workers will now be free to negotiate their own terms and conditions of employment, and be rewarded on their individual merit.

“Teamsters lawyers threw up every stumbling block possible over the past several months to block KV Pharma employees from exercising their free choice,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The hostility of the union hierarchy to workers’ interests shows why Missouri needs a Right to Work law that would make union affiliation and dues payment strictly voluntary.”

A decertification election, an NLRB-supervised secret ballot election to oust a union, is an uphill battle for workers to obtain or win. In particular, union lawyers are adept at gumming up the works by filing baseless charges that often block an election for years. Employees can also only obtain such elections during narrowly prescribed periods every few years, and incumbent union hierarchies often retaliate against dissenting employees.

Butte, MT (January 16, 2008) – To avoid federal prosecution by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a local union had no choice but to withdraw illegal termination threats against a Kalispell-based employee of Hanson Trucking and Resin Haulers Inc. and return all forced dues plus interest to the timber trucker.

The agreement, won by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys, requires Teamsters Local 2 union officials to reimburse Michael Weller full union back dues plus 10 percent interest on all dues paid. Teamsters officials also promised to provide full financial disclosure of the use of Weller’s forced dues, as required by law.

With help from Foundation attorneys, Weller filed charges in October 2007 at the NLRB against the Teamsters Local 2 union to protect himself from union threats that he would be fired from his job for refusing to join the union. The charges cite that Teamsters Local 2 union officials attempted to collect ongoing and back forced union dues, while failing to provide Weller with a verified audited breakdown of union chargeable and non-chargeable expenses.

After learning of his right to refrain from formal union membership independent of Teamsters Local 2, Weller sent letters to union officials asserting his right not to be forced to pay more than the documented cost of monopoly bargaining. Because the union responded with threats against his job, Weller had no choice but to pay under protest hundreds of dollars in forced union dues – using a money order.

“This legal battle would never have been necessary if the State of Montana did not have an outrageous policy of forced unionism,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Until Montana passes a Right to Work law that ensures that payment of union dues is strictly voluntary, union officials will inevitably continue to victimize and extort money from dissenting employees.”

In the Foundation-won Communications Workers of America v. Beck decision, which applies to forced unionism states, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employees working under the National Labor Relations Act are entitled to resign from formal union membership, but can still be forced to pay for activities related to union monopoly bargaining. However, they cannot be compelled to pay for other costs such as union political activities.

Additionally, a union collecting forced dues must have an independent third party audit its expenditures and verify that the percentage of dues that non-members are forced to pay does not include political spending and other non-collective bargaining expenses.

Oostburg, WI (January 7, 2008) – With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, four Pre-Heat, Inc. employees have filed federal charges against the Sheet Metal Workers International Association union for exorbitant and illegal retaliatory fines levied against them.

The employees, led by Patrick Keefe, filed the unfair labor practice charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Sheet Metal Workers Local 18. Union officials hit them with fines of $30,000 each after they resigned their formal union membership and returned to work during a union-ordered strike. Nonunion members are not subject to internal union discipline.

Following their resignations, Keefe and his coworkers also began gathering signatures for a decertification election, an NLRB-supervised secret ballot election to oust a union, which is generally an uphill battle for workers to obtain. However, the employees’ efforts resulted in a majority of employees signing the petition to oust the unpopular union, and Pre-Heat, Inc. then withdrew recognition from the union because it no longer had the employees’ support.

After the strike ended, in November 2007, union officials ordered Keefe and his four coworkers to attend a Sheet Metal Workers union internal kangaroo court held for the purpose of punishing them for exercising their legal rights. Union agent Patrick Landgraf charged the employees with violating the union’s constitution. In his written statement during the union trial, Landgraf claimed Keefe and the others “selfishly crossed” the picket line for “this rat contractor” and accused the employees of preventing the union from obtaining a new contract. Landgraf did not mention that his union had been resoundingly rejected by the workers.

Because they were not members of the union, Keefe and the other employees chose not to show up at the “trial.” In their absence, the union’s Executive Board found the employees “guilty” of all charges, fining them a total of $120,000. Sheet Metal Workers union officials ordered Keefe and the three other workers to pay the illegally imposed fines within 30 days.

“It is unconscionable for union bosses to attempt to drive workers into the poorhouse in vicious retaliation for returning to work,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “This union intimidation is all too common in states like Wisconsin where there is no Right to Work law on the books.”

A Right to Work law secures the right of employees to decide for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union. The NLRB’s Regional Office will now investigate the charges and decide whether to issue a formal complaint and prosecute the union.

**Batavia, IL (December 20, 2007)** – Laidlaw Transit, Inc. busing employees have voted to remove Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1028 as the “exclusive bargaining representative” of approximately 160 transit workers. In an election held earlier this week, Laidlaw Transit employees voted 83-64 to oust the unwanted union from their workplace.

The election result comes just months after a majority of employees had already petitioned their employer to withdraw recognition of the ATU union. However, after a British company, FirstGroup PLC, completed the purchase of Laidlaw Transit in October, the bus company and ATU Local 1028 officials illegally began bargaining over the wages and working conditions of employees that the union did not even “represent.”

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys, Laidlaw Transit employee Russell Haasch filed federal charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Haasch highlighted that ATU union officials had been negotiating a contract with FirstGroup, despite the fact that he and his coworkers had successfully ousted the union earlier this year.

In spring 2007, Haasch collected signatures from an overwhelming majority of his coworkers and in June presented the petition to their employer, Laidlaw Transit, which legally and properly ended its recognition of the ATU union as the monopoly bargaining agent. Haasch and his coworkers soon realized that the successor employer, FirstGroup, was negotiating a contract with ATU officials, despite the fact that the employees had shown that the union did not have their support.

According to the National Labor Relations Act, by bargaining over the contracts of employees that the union does not legally represent, the union and FirstGroup engaged in illegal “pre-recognition” bargaining. As part of their negotiations, the union sought a forced-dues clause in the contract that would make payment of union dues a job requirement. Facing an embarrassing federal prosecution, officials of ATU Local 1028 and FirstGroup had no choice but to agree to the secret ballot decertification election.

“Despite ATU union officials’ attempt to force this unpopular union on employees’ like-it-or-not, Haasch and his coworkers have once again shown them the door,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “With the lack of respect these union officials have for the employees, it is no surprise that workers have repeatedly rejected this union hierarchy.”

As a result of the decertification victory, Laidlaw Transit employees will now be free to negotiate their own terms and conditions of employment, and be rewarded on their individual merit. Decertification elections are an uphill battle for workers to obtain or win. In particular, union lawyers are adept at gumming up the works by filing baseless charges that often block an election for years. Employees can only obtain such elections during narrow periods every few years, and incumbent union hierarchies often retaliate against dissenting employees.