Oxnard, Calif. (December 17, 2003) —The General Counsel of California’s Agriculture Labor Relations Board (ALRB) has filed a complaint against the United Farm Workers union for unlawfully ordering mass firings of more than 150 Oxnard Coastal Berry employees who refused to join the union.

With the assistance of National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, Francisco Alzazar, Bertha Ambriz, Bertha Andrade, Ella Carranza, Alma Rose Arredondo, and Manuel Mena filed the class-action unfair labor practice charges against the UFW union in June 2001. Coastal Berry, which employs approximately 750 workers, is the world’s largest strawberry producer.

“These employees so disdained the notion of joining and supporting the UFW union, that they decided they would rather lose their jobs,” said National Right to Work Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason. “Though the wheels of justice have moved far too slow, we are encouraged that the ALRB has finally decided to take action to defend these victims.”

In May 2000, by order of an ALRB packed with three one-day appointments by Governor Gray Davis, UFW union officials gained monopoly bargaining power over employees at Coastal Berry. In March 2001, Coastal Berry entered into a collective bargaining agreement with the UFW union. Within days, UFW officials demanded that all Coastal Berry workers join the union and sign payroll deduction cards that would have allowed union officials to seize dues from their paychecks. More than 150 workers refused to comply with the UFW union’s illegal ultimatum and were fired at the union officials’ demand.

The ALRB complaint states that UFW union officials unlawfully demanded that the berry pickers pay full union dues as a condition of employment, violating several Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Chicago Teachers v. Hudson. UFW union officials also unlawfully failed to inform employees of their rights to object to paying for non-collective bargaining activities (such as politics), and the right to challenge the union’s fee calculations before an impartial decision maker.

Foundation attorneys are seeking full remedies (including back pay) for their clients and all employees similarly situated. If the union’s officials do not settle the case, they will now face a trial.

California State Senator Tom McClintock (R-19th District), whose legislative district includes Oxnard, weighed in on behalf of the workers. “The National Right to Work Foundation should be commended for representing the hard-working Californians that have been denied their jobs due to politics. Ironically, the UFW claims to be for workers, yet it turned more than 150 workers away from the fields where they have labored for years.”

St. Johns, Mich. (December 16, 2003) – Fighting a highly coercive union organizing drive that embodies an emerging trend in the auto industry, a St. Johns-area worker filed federal charges today. The charges challenge a sweetheart agreement between Dana Corporation and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union intended to corral some 300 workers into union membership regardless of their wishes.

Company and union officials began implementing their so-called “partnership agreement” – which required the company actively to support union organizing efforts – even after a majority of the St. Johns facility workers had signed a petition outlining their explicit opposition to unionization by the UAW union.

Gary Smeltzer, a Dana employee, obtained free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys to file unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB will decide whether to issue a formal complaint and prosecute the charges.

The charges seek an NLRB injunction against the UAW and Dana Corporation that would block implementation of the “partnership agreement.” As part of the agreement, company officials handed over employees’ personal information to union organizers and granted union operatives wide access to employees in the plant. Union officials also make it difficult for employees to void previously signed union recognition cards.

As part of their coercive organizing efforts, UAW union officials notified employees that the only way they could rescind prior authorization cards was if UAW operatives visited the home of each worker – an intimidation tactic obviously intended to discourage dissent.

“Since employees nationwide have increasingly rejected unionization through the secret ballot election process, union organizers have bypassed this less abusive process and instead are organizing companies from the top down,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The employees’ wishes are the last thing on the minds of UAW officials. They just want forced union dues. Dana willingly complies in order to get a sweetheart contract.”

In addition to assisting actively union organizers, company officials may not respond to any questions from workers about the union. Company officials also waived a secret ballot NLRB-supervised election in exchange for union officials’ offer to waive future legal rights of organized employees. Union officials even began bargaining with Dana over health benefits despite lacking majority support.

While many workers signed the petition to remain free of union representation before the organizing drive began, Dana and UAW officials completely ignored their wishes. The petition was submitted to UAW and Dana top executives in November, and expressly requested that the union not be granted monopoly representation over the workers, and that personal information not be given to union operatives.

Oklahoma City, Okla. (December 16, 2003) – The Supreme Court of Oklahoma today rejected two separate attempts by union lawyers to deny Oklahoma citizens the right to choose whether or not to join or support financially a union, upholding Oklahoma’s constitutional Right to Work amendment which was passed by statewide referendum in September 2001.

With its ruling the state’s supreme court effectively ended a two-year legal battle waged by attorneys for Governor Frank Keating alongside National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys against union lawyers who were bent on reclaiming the special privilege of compulsory unionism they enjoyed prior to that referendum.

“Today is a great day for Oklahoma. No longer will there be a dark cloud over the Right to Work amendment that has already resulted in the creation of new jobs, an increase in wages, and more employee freedom compared to states without such protections,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

In Transport Workers Local 514 et al v. Keating et al, a U.S. Court of Appeals earlier ruled that certain ancillary provisions of the law are preempted by federal law such that the law cannot apply to employees working, for example, on exclusive federal property or in the airline or railroad industry (as is the case with all other state Right to Work laws). However, the federal court accepted a request by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys that the Oklahoma Supreme Court should decide the state law question of whether the federal preemption invalidates the entire Right to Work constitutional amendment.

This afternoon, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court ruled that the union lawyers could not prove their assertion that Oklahoma voters would somehow not have approved the Right to Work amendment if they had known that it could not be applied to every single employee in the state.

At the same time, the Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected arguments in a separate state court challenge to the Right to Work amendment. This summer, National Right to Work Foundation attorneys discovered the existence of a “collusive lawsuit” filed with the apparent intention by both parties (union and employer) of voiding the state’s Right to Work law without serious arguments made by a party that sincerely supports the law. Discovering this, Foundation attorneys intervened in that suit representing Stephen Weese, a Tulsa-area employee, to ensure that the law was vigorously defended.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court today rejected arguments raised by union attorneys in the collusive suit that the Right to Work constitutional amendment violated the due process and equal protections clauses of the Oklahoma constitution. The Oklahoma court followed U.S. Supreme Court precedents dating back to the 1940s that have rejected similar arguments under the U.S. Constitution. Since it took effect, Oklahoma has led the nation in several economic performance categories – despite a struggling American economy.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 15, 2003) — Attorneys with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation today filed as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in opposition to the AFL-CIO’s motion for a preliminary injunction to block implementation of new union financial disclosure requirements.

Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao issued the final regulations on October 9, 2003, in response to a national epidemic of union corruption. This revision in the long-standing union disclosure requirements was the first such reform in over four decades.

As the only amicus curiae so far in the case, Foundation attorneys filed arguments on the deadline in the U.S. District Court for the Department of Labor to respond to the motion for a preliminary injunction. Foundation attorneys argue that Secretary Chao responded to a clear need for union accountability and transparency, and she acted within her authority by issuing the new requirements to disclose more financial information to rank-and-file union members.

“The AFL-CIO hierarchy is going all out to keep rank-and-file workers in the dark about union finances,” said Foundation President Mark Mix. “Not only did Secretary Chao have the authority to do what she did, but she should have gone much further, such as requiring independent audits as well as more functional reporting of union expenditures.”

The National Right to Work Foundation has also been critical of the curious raising of the threshold for itemization of expenditures in the final disclosure rules. At the last minute, the itemization level was set at $5,000 from an originally proposed level of $250, allowing the concealment of many union disbursements on the new forms.

The AFL-CIO union hierarchy claims the new regulations are “prohibitively expensive,” arguing that unions will be required to keep records in a new way. However, contrary to these claims, to comply with several landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings, unions are already required to track expenditures in a fashion that the new forms will require.

Under the Foundation-won rulings in Communications Workers v. Beck and Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson, union officials already must maintain accounting systems, record keeping, and infrastructure to provide forced-dues-paying nonmembers with information about how resources are spent on various union functions. With these reporting mechanisms already in place, Foundation attorneys assert that most unions should be able to satisfy the new reporting requirements with little additional financial burden.

Milwaukee, Wisc. (December 12, 2003) — With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a worker at the Miller Compressing recycling plant today filed federal charges after he was fired in retaliation for circulating a petition seeking a workplace election on forced union dues.

Daniel Zizzo filed unfair labor practice charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against both the union and his former employer. Zizzo alleges officials from the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers (PACE) Union Local 7-364, an AFL-CIO affiliate, successfully pressured his employer to fire him in retaliation for obtaining signatures on an NLRB prescribed form requesting a deauthorization election.

Deauthorization elections are conducted by NLRB officials. If successful, they simply void collective bargaining agreement provisions that require workers to pay dues to a union as a condition of employment – thereby creating conditions of voluntary unionism and forcing union officials to be more responsive to the concerns of rank-and-file workers. To succeed, at least 30 percent of workers in a bargaining unit must sign a petition requesting the secret ballot election, and a majority of the entire bargaining unit (not just of those actually voting) must cast a vote in favor of deauthorization.

“Union officials feared losing the power to mandate dues payments from all workers. Without the power to get employees fired for refusal to pay union dues, union officials could actually be held accountable,” stated Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation.

Zizzo asserts that while he was circulating a deauthorization petition, the papers, including the signatures he had gathered from co-workers, were taken out of his work locker. According to Zizzo, he had already gathered the necessary signatures to trigger the election and ultimately to succeed in the deauthorization. He also asserts that union officials trumped up charges against him to get him fired.

The federal charges state that Zizzo’s retaliatory firing at the union hierarchy’s behest violates provisions of federal law intended to protect the rights of individual workers to refrain from participating in union activities. Zizzo also asks that Miller Compressing be prosecuted for providing the union hierarchy with unlawful assistance in firing him.

“Daniel Zizzo’s firing shows just how zealously union officials guard their government-granted power to collect forced union dues,” added Gleason. “Until Wisconsin workers enjoy the protections of a Right to Work law, workers throughout the state will inevitably continue to suffer such abuse.”

Pensacola, Fla. (December 12, 2003) – With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, an employee at the Naval Air Station has today asked the federal government to prosecute a large international union for requiring employees to object annually if they do not want union officials to spend their compulsory union dues for political activities.

Robert Prime, an employee of Vertex Aerospace, LLC, filed the unfair labor practice charges against the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union, as well as District Lodge 75 and Local Lodge 2777, at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Prime alleges that union officials have violated his rights by refusing to honor his request to be a “continuing objector,” instead forcing him to renew every single year his objection to funding union political activities.

A United States District Court ruling in 2000 struck down the IAM union’s nationwide policy requiring annual objections from employees seeking a rebate of dues spent for activities unrelated to collective bargaining, but the ruling technically only applied to employees covered by the Railway Labor Act. In another case, a U.S. Court of Appeals also ruled earlier against the union’s policy

“Union officials use these annual objection schemes to hamstring and demoralize employees so that their forced-dues money continues to flow into union political coffers,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the Foundation. “This arrogant union hierarchy has repeatedly violated the rights of nonmembers, and is attempting to make an example of Robert Prime in order to keep other rank-and-file workers in line.”

In January, Prime filed a related round of unfair labor practice charges against IAM union officials for illegally collecting full union dues from him as a nonmember. This recidivist union settled the charges by paying retroactive refunds to Prime and many other employees.

The union requirement that employees object year after year – rather than once – has dramatically hampered the effect of the well-known Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court Communications Workers v. Beck decision. That decision established that employees cannot be compelled to pay for costs unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activity.

Prime’s situation is somewhat unique, as Florida has a highly popular Right to Work law that bans compulsory unionism. However, because Vertex Aerospace employees work on federal property under exclusive federal jurisdiction, the state’s Right to Work law does not protect them.

San Francisco, Calif. (December 8, 2003) — Three local station engineers for Univision’s KDTV-Channel 14 have filed federal charges against a local union for failing to give them adequate notice of their right to pay less than full union dues and threatening to have them fired unless they pay a union initiation fee (amounting to three weeks’ pay) as well as several months of back dues.

Enjoying free legal assistance from attorneys with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, the employees, led by William Sanders, filed the unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board based in San Francisco.

The charges fault officials from the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) Union Local 51, and its national affiliate, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union for failing to give workers adequate notice of their right to pay reduced dues, not providing a legally mandated audit of union expenditures, and illegally attempting to collect full dues and the initiation fee from the nonmembers.

Though Sanders and his co-workers never joined the NABET union, and objected to paying for union political activity, they have received numerous letters threatening them with discharge if they do not pay an initiation fee, equal to three weeks’ pay, as well as full dues since a new contract provision was instituted.

“Union officials want professionals like William Sanders to simply shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “This shows that union officials are more concerned with using workers as their personal ATMs than standing up for the interests of those whom they supposedly represent.”

By failing to give Sanders and his fellow workers adequate information about their right to pay reduced dues, NABET union officials violated worker protections recognized by the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Communications Workers of America v. Beck, a case Foundation attorneys argued and won. Under Beck, workers have the option to refrain from formal union membership and may be forced only to pay an agency fee to cover the union’s proven collective bargaining costs.

Furthermore, under U.S. Supreme Court precedents, union officials must provide non-member workers an independent audit of union expenditures to ensure they are not funding activities unrelated to collective bargaining, such as politics. Both NABET and CWA union officials never provided Sanders or his fellow workers with such an audit.

“No one should be forced to pay dues to an unwanted union just to get or keep their job,” stated Gleason. “This is especially true when union officials go out of their way to keep workers in the dark about their rights.”

Santa Monica, Calif. (December 4, 2003) – Six employees at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel today filed federal charges to challenge a joint effort by union and company officials to corral the hotel staff into union membership against their wishes.

Evidence suggests that Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Union Local 11 operatives repeatedly attempted to bribe and intimidate employees into supporting the union during a recent organizing drive. Feeling coerced, the group of employees contacted the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, and the Foundation’s legal-aid attorneys filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging unfair labor practices against both the union and the hotel.

The union organizers used the harassment and alleged bribes as part of an effort to induce employees to sign union authorization cards that would be counted as a vote for unionization. Because workers were harassed into signing union authorization cards, and many revoked signed cards, the employees also dispute the union’s claim that a majority of Sheraton workers actually support the union. The employees, therefore, contend that HERE officials should be prevented from bargaining on their behalf.

“Union officials knew they could not win a traditional, government-supervised secret ballot election of the employees,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “That’s why they resorted to bullying employees one-by-one into signing union recognition cards.”

During the union organizers’ push for signatures, HERE officials reportedly made significant rent payments on behalf of multiple workers and offered fruit baskets and other special favors to certain hotel employees. Now that the HERE union is recognized by hotel management as the workplace representative for all employees, HERE officials are demanding that all employees be forced to pay union dues or fees as a job condition.

The card-check organizing campaign came about as a result of a so-called “neutrality agreement,” under which union organizers did not have to face a secret ballot election of the employees and were granted broad access to the workplace to pressure employees into signing union cards. Union organizers even followed employees to their homes. While the NLRB charges are pending, Foundation attorneys are also investigating whether the City of Santa Monica imposed the scheme on Sheraton. Such action by a local government body would be preempted by federal law.

Pittsburgh, Penn. (December 1, 2003) – Obtaining free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, two Renaissance Hotel workers today asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for permission to intervene in a high-profile suit, to challenge a joint effort by union and city officials to corral all hotel staff into union membership against their wishes.

After workers throughout the hotel suffered a harassment campaign at the hands of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Union Local 57 officials, hotel employees Faith Jetter and David Harlich filed the petition to intervene in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The workers’ seek to block implementation of a so-called “neutrality agreement” which required their employer, Sage Hospitality Resources (Sage), to actively assist union organizers.

Meanwhile, many other workers have been reluctant to step forward publicly. Foundation attorneys have received numerous reports of incidents involving HERE union officials including physical intimidation, harassment in the workplace, and intimidating home visits — all aimed at coercing employees to sign union authorization cards which would be counted as a vote for unionization.

“Faith Jetter and David Harlich show real courage by coming forward to stand up for worker freedom,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The reluctance of their coworkers to speak out shows just how far union operatives have gone to strike fear into the hearts of dissenting workers.”

Jetter and Harlich seek intervenor status to block implementation of the “neutrality agreement,” under which union organizers have broad access to their workplace to pressure employees into union membership. Union officials have also gained access to personal employee information such as names and home addresses.

Harlich and Jetter allege that the City of Pittsburgh unlawfully required Sage to give up certain rights that are protected by federal law, and that the neutrality agreement interferes with the rights of individual workers to decide their own representation.

Cleveland, Ohio (November 24, 2003) — A civil rights lawsuit affecting 223 Cleveland State University (CSU) employees came to a close this week, as a local union has been forced to mail refunds totaling $38,755 in previously seized union dues.

The U.S. District Court-approved settlement ends a two-year-long standoff in the case brought by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys for university employees alleging that the union had illegally deducted forced dues from the paychecks of nonunion workers. These illegal deductions made it possible for the union to spend nonmembers’ funds on politics and other activities unrelated to collective bargaining.

“CWA union officials simply wanted nonmembers to shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Their actions serve as clear examples of the greed and corruption that flow from compulsory unionism.”

Led by five non-union maintenance workers – Ronald Walker, Ed Burkhart, Thomas Ensley, Julius Gipson, and Joseph Sirna – the workers filed suit in February in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union Local 4309 and CSU administrators.

The workers alleged union officials and University administrators violated their First Amendment and due process rights by forcing them to pay full dues as a condition of employment.

From February 2001 to July 2002, CWA union officials illegally seized a so-called “agency fee” equal to full union dues from non-union employees without providing any explanation of how the agency fee is justified. In July 2002, when CWA officials belatedly sent a letter to non-union employees claiming that the agency fee was 75% of full union dues, they failed to provide the workers with an independent audit verifying Local 4309’s claims.

The actions of CWA union officials directly violate the Foundation-won Supreme Court decision in Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson, which requires union officials to provide objecting employees an advance reduction of forced union dues used for politics and other non-bargaining activities. Under Hudson, union officials must also provide audited disclosure of their books and justify expenditures made from forced union dues seized from employees who choose to refrain from full union membership.

The settlement forces the union to return to each union-abused employee an average of $178.80 in back union dues and interest.

“No one should be forced to pay dues to an unwanted union, especially when union officials abuse that government-granted special privilege,” stated Gleason.