Neosho, MO (July 23, 2018) – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a complaint in response to unfair labor practice charges filed by an employee of New-Mac Electric Cooperative against the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 53. After James Feagins objected to paying full union dues beyond what he could be legally required to pay, union officials failed to provide him with information on union dues and spending. They also demanded that he pay about 94% of the full dues rate just to keep his job, including illegal charges for expenses outside the local bargaining unit.

With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Feagins, who works in New-Mac’s accounting department, filed charges with the NLRB against Kansas City-based IBEW Local 53. The charge states that union officials violated Feagins’ rights by failing to provide him with legally required information of union expenditures, such as an independent audit, and charging him for union activities unrelated to bargaining.

Missouri’s Right to Work law is pending a voter referendum in August. Because the law is not yet in effect, employees like Feagins can be required to pay some fees to union officials as a condition of employment. However, even without Right to Work protections workers cannot legally be required to fund activities unrelated to union bargaining, such as political action, and unions must follow certain procedures to justify the amount of the compulsory fee. As Feagins’ case shows, enforcing such rights absent a Right to Work law can be difficult.

In November 2017, Feagins, who is not a union member, objected to paying any fees to IBEW beyond the legal requirements. However, union officials failed to provide Feagins with a detailed explanation of union expenses to justify the amount they were charging him. Further, union officials continue to charge Feagins for non-bargaining activities. The fees they have demanded include organizing expenses from outside Local 53’s competitive market, which is illegal.

To protect his rights, Feagins turned to the National Right to Work Foundation for free legal assistance. Following a charge filed for him by Foundation staff attorneys, the NLRB Regional Director issued a complaint, and has now scheduled a trial for October.

“Feagins chose to hold IBEW union officials accountable for their greedy neglect of employees’ rights,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “As long as union officials have the power to force financial support from the workers they claim to represent, these types of violations will continue as union bosses seek to line their pockets with illegal forced dues.”

“This case underscores the need for Missouri workers to have the protections of a Right to Work law to make union affiliation and union financial support completely voluntary,” continued Mix. “Each and every Missouri worker deserves the freedom to decide for him or herself whether union officials deserve part of their hard-earned money.”

Following the National Right to Work Foundation’s victory in the US Supreme Court Janus v. AFSCME decision, International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 370 union officials have withdrawn a case pending at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that sought to overturn Idaho’s longstanding Right to Work law.

Just hours after the Supreme Court released the landmark Janus v. AFSCME decision, declaring that public-sector workers cannot constitutionally be forced to pay union fees, the Court of Appeals asked that briefs be submitted by the parties in IUOE v. Wasden on the impact of Janus on the lawsuit.

Yesterday, prior to the deadline for that brief, union bosses notified the Court that they were withdrawing their legal challenge to Idaho’s popular Right to Work law which protects workers from being forced to fund a labor union as a condition of getting or keeping a job.

In addition to successfully arguing the Janus case at the U.S. Supreme Court, National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed an amicus curiae brief in the in the IUOE v. Wasden case to defend Idaho and other state’s longstanding legal right to pass Right to Work laws to protect workers from forced union dues.

In response to the end of this particular legal attack on Right to Work, National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix issued the following statement:

“This development is a huge victory for independent-minded workers, not just in Idaho but across the country. IUOE officials tried to push their outrageous legal theory to overturn over 60 years of precedent which, had it been accepted could have wiped out Right to Work protections for millions of workers. Thankfully, their attempt to end Right to Work laws has failed, and Idaho workers still have the liberty to choose whether or not to financially support a union.”

MyJanusRights.org offers free legal assistance to public employees seeking to enforce right to cut off union fees as protected by Janus v. AFSCME decision

Springfield, VA (June 28, 2018) – Today the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation announced the creation of a task force to defend the rights of government employees as protected by the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Janus v. AFSCME.

The Foundation’s Janus Task Force includes veteran Foundation staff attorney William Messenger, who successfully argued Janus v. AFSCME before the Supreme Court and other staff attorneys who worked on the case.

The National Right to Work Foundation has also established a stand-alone website to assist workers in learning their rights and providing guidance on how to exercise them. That site, www.MyJanusRights.org, directs workers to the Foundation’s legal aid program for free assistance in exercising their First Amendment rights protected by the Janus decision. Foundation legal aid can also be obtained through www.nrtw.org or by calling 1-800-336-3600.

The Foundation is offering free legal aid to all government workers who wish to refrain from union membership and union payments. The Foundation’s eighteen staff attorneys defend workers’ rights in more than 200 cases each year, all at no cost to the employees aided.

“The victory in Janus means that public-sector workers can no longer be forced to pay dues or fees to union officials to keep their jobs,” said National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation President Mark Mix. “Unfortunately, experience shows us that union officials frequently ignore restrictions on their power over workers, which is why we are establishing this task force to assist workers who want to enforce their new Janus rights.”

The Foundation has a long history of assisting employees seeking to exercise their Right to Work protections. Defending and enforcing Right to Work protections has long been one of the most critical tasks Foundation staff attorneys undertake. Any public-sector worker who has questions about his or her rights, or encounters any resistance or abuse while trying to exercise his or her workplace rights, is encouraged to contact Foundation staff attorneys for free legal aid.

National Right to Work Foundation attorneys represent pro-Right to Work Kentucky employees who are opposed to forced union dues

Frankfort, KY (June 18, 2018) – On behalf of three of Kentucky workers, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys have submitted a brief in the ongoing union boss legal challenge to Kentucky’s popular new Right to Work law.

Kentucky governor Matt Bevin signed the state’s Right to Work provisions into law on January 7, 2017, making Kentucky the nation’s 27th Right to Work state to protect workers from being forced to fund a labor union as a condition of employment. Under Right to Work, union membership and dues payment are strictly voluntary.

The Kentucky workers, with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney William Messenger, won a motion to intervene in the case brought by union officials against the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Although the Commonwealth is also defending the law, the workers’ rights are at stake in the case because without Right to Work they could be forced to pay union fees against their will.

A Circuit Court dismissed the union officials’ challenge in January. The Kentucky Supreme Court decided to take the case earlier this year and is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on August 10.

The brief filed recently by pro-Right to Work Bluegrass State workers urges the court to uphold the lower court’s dismissal of the case and end Big Labor’s baseless challenge to the state’s Right to Work protections for workers.

“Right to Work laws have long been upheld by appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Union bosses’ arguments against Kentucky’s Right to Work law were rejected in the past and should be rejected again by the Kentucky Supreme Court,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation.

“Not only has Kentucky’s Right to Work law ensured that Bluegrass State workers have the right to choose whether or not to fund a labor union with their hard-earned money, but the state has benefited from record investment and job creation due to the law’s passage,” continued Mix. “It’s shameful that Kentucky union bosses want to undo all that, just to restore their power to have a worker fired for refusing to pay them a portion of their paycheck.”

Union officials’ arbitrary rule forces workers to wait 13-months to cut off dues payments and exercise rights under Wisconsin Right to Work law

Washington, D.C. (June 12, 2018) – An employee of a Wisconsin paper mill has filed an appeal with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel with free legal aid by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys. The filing asks the NLRB’s top prosecutor to review a decision by an NLRB regional office, which declined to bring charges against a local union whose policy makes workers wait up to 13 months before they can revoke their dues authorization and exercise their rights under Wisconsin’s popular Right to Work law.

Since 2015, Wisconsin’s Right to Work protections make union membership and financial support strictly voluntary. However, union officials blocked workers from exercising their rights under the law. Donald Dillabough, an employee at Clearwater Paper Corporation, found this out when he attempted to exercise his right to end payments to the United Steelworkers (USW).

In December 2017, Dillabough emailed the USW resigning from the union and revoking his authorization for the union to collect dues payments from his paychecks. Despite his revocation, USW union officials denied his request to end payments by claiming his request was not submitted during a union-created “window period.” The union had established an arbitrary 13-month waiting period in between windows in which employees can withdraw their membership.

In February, represented by National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Mr. Dillabough filed an unfair labor practice charge against the union contending that the 13-month window period rule violates his rights under the National Labor Relations Act. However, the regional office declined to issue a complaint against the union. Now, Mr. Dillabough has appealed to the NLRB’s General Counsel, Peter Robb, who can overturn the decision not to prosecute the USW local for the union’s policy.

“Even in states like Wisconsin, where union dues payments are by law supposed to be completely voluntary, union bosses frequently employ window period schemes in an attempt to trap workers into paying forced dues against their will,” said National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Wisconsin’s Right to Work law protects an employee’s right to choose whether or not to join and financially support a union. In their zeal to seize forced dues for as long as possible, USW union officials have violated longstanding Labor Board precedent, and the General Counsel should defend Mr. Dillabough’s rights by initiating a prosecution against the USW for this illegal policy.”

Brief counters union lawyers’ claims that invalid injunction let them extend forced dues contracts after law went into effect

Charleston, WV (June 7, 2018) – National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys filed an amicus curiae brief with the Kanawha County Circuit Court. The brief urges the court to deny a motion made by union officials that would circumvent and undermine the protections afforded to workers by West Virginia’s Right to Work law.

The brief, filed in West Virginia AFL-CIO et al. v. Governor James C. Justice, et al. responds to union lawyers’ legally dubious arguments that union officials should be allowed to enforce forced dues contracts entered into during the pendency of an erroneous injunction against enforcing the state’s Right to Work law.

After West Virginia’s Right to Work law passed in February 2016, several state unions brought a lawsuit against the state. The Kanawha County Circuit Court issued a preliminary injunction against the law to prevent it from being enforced. However, the West Virginia Supreme Court later ruled that the Circuit Court was wrong to have granted the injunction in the first place.

The Right to Work law renders invalid all forced unionism clauses in union bargaining agreements entered into after July 1, 2016. After the injunction was dissolved, union lawyers asked the Circuit Court to exercise authority and give legal effect to such clauses in agreements entered into during the erroneous injunction’s pendency.

In the brief, Foundation staff attorneys argue that the Circuit Court cannot rewrite the date of the law’s application, allowing for workers to be forced to fund a union or be fired for years after the state’s legislature intended the law to go into effect.

Additionally, because the injunction was erroneous and is now dissolved, the Right to Work law is fully effective. Foundation attorneys argue that a wrongly-issued preliminary injunction does not give union officials any exemption to the law. The brief also explains that the Circuit Court’s validation of the clauses would decide the validity of an untold number of contracts in other jurisdictions throughout West Virginia concerning parties not even represented in the case, and therefore such an order would not be in the Circuit Court’s power.

“This lawsuit challenging West Virginia’s Right to Work law was always about creating confusion and uncertainty that union bosses could then exploit to seize more dues from workers against their will,” said National Right to Work President Mark Mix. “West Virginia’s popular new Right to Work law is a victory for workplace freedom, and it is long past time that Mountain State union bosses stop wasting dues money fighting dead-end legal challenges and start to work to provide services for which rank-and-file workers will voluntarily pay.”

Labor Board General Counsel gives OK to investigate and prosecute UNITE HERE union officials’ scheme that discriminates against non-union members

Las Vegas, NV (May 30, 2018) – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has sustained an appeal by a Las Vegas bartender who filed charges for being fired as a result of a collusive agreement between her employer and the local union. Natalie Ruisi filed the charges and appealed with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

Ruisi worked at Aramark Sports and Entertainment Services, a subcontractor for Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino. She, as well as several other Aramark employees, was discharged because she did not meet Monte Carlo’s requirement to pass a craft examination offered solely through the company union, Local Joint Executive Board of Las Vegas affiliated with UNITE HERE International (UNITE HERE).

Ruisi claims that the contract between Monte Carlo and UNITE HERE violates the National Labor Relations Act by requiring employees, including those who work for subcontractors, to take pre-hire classes from the union as a condition of employment. She alleges that the requirement unfairly discriminates and encourages membership in a labor organization.

In 2013, Monte Carlo and UNITE HERE entered into a monopoly bargaining agreement that her NLRB charges say illegally discriminated against workers who chose to exercise their right to refrain from formal union membership. The discrimination included requiring bartenders, even those who work for a subcontractor, to pass a craft examination that could only be obtained through union officials in order to acquire a “pour card” to work.

When Monte Carlo subcontracted to Aramark, UNITE HERE officials demanded that Monte Carlo discharge all Aramark employees who had not passed the union’s craft examination. Ruisi and 15 other employees, who as nonmembers did not know about the requirement until after they were hired, were discharged.

Although the NLRB Regional Director scheduled a trial with the intention of prosecuting the violation, at the last minute the charge was unexpectedly dismissed. Foundation staff attorneys appealed, and Trump-appointed NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb ruled that the Regional Director should investigate the case for violations of the National Labor Relations Act. The case has been remanded to the Regional Director for further action.

Nevada is a Right to Work state, with laws that protect individual workers’ rights to choose whether or not to join a union and pay union dues. Additionally, the National Labor Relations Act protects workers’ choice to refrain from union activities and prohibits employers from interfering with or coercing employees in violation of their rights.

“Ruisi is fighting for her right to choose whether or not to associate with a union – a right that, in addition to her rights under federal labor law, is codified and protected by Nevada’s Right to Work law,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Unfortunately, this type of illegal union scheme is widespread in Las Vegas, which is why this successful appeal is so important.”

“Other Las Vegas service industry workers facing similar situations should know that they can contact the National Right to Work Foundation to request free legal assistance,” added Mix.

National Right to Work Foundation attorneys file brief for Illinois homecare providers who had $32 million seized by SEIU without their consent

Washington, DC (May 21, 2018) – Today staff attorneys from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation filed the final brief in Riffey v. Rauner asking the United States Supreme Court to grant certiorari and hear the case. The home care providers for whom the case was brought had over $32 million in fees seized by union officials in a scheme the Supreme Court has already ruled violated the First Amendment. The case is now fully briefed and the Supreme Court could announce in June whether it will take the case.

The reply brief filed today counters the claims made in briefs by union officials and the Illinois Attorney General. Those briefs were filed only after the Supreme Court required the union and the attorney general to file briefs responding to Foundation attorneys’ initial petition for a writ of certiorari.

Riffey v. Rauner is a continuation of the Foundation-won Supreme Court Harris v. Quinn case. If the Court decides to hear Riffey, the Justices will consider whether a class of nonmember homecare providers should receive a refund of over $32 million that SEIU union officials seized from them without their consent.

Beginning with a 2003 executive order by former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, tens of thousands of individual homecare providers were classified as “public employees” solely so they could be unionized by the SEIU and thus required to pay union fees. Many of these in-home care givers were parents caring for their own children in their own homes.

Staff attorneys with the National Right to Work Foundation assisted eight of these providers in filing a federal class-action lawsuit, Harris v. Quinn, challenging the forced dues. In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that SEIU’s forced dues scheme violated the First Amendment rights of the in-home care providers.

To settle remaining issues, the case was remanded to the District Court and re-designated as Riffey v. Rauner. The District Court ruled in 2016 that, even though the workers never consented to their money being taken for union fees, the SEIU did not have to refund the over $32 million in unconstitutional fees confiscated from union nonmembers.

Foundation attorneys are now asking the Court to take the case and determine whether the “government inflicts a First Amendment injury when it compels individuals to subsidize speech without their prior consent.” If the Court so rules, it would overturn the lower court’s reasoning denying the providers refunds of the seized fees.

Riffey is not the only case being litigated by Foundation staff attorneys related to whether individuals must take steps to “opt out” of dues the Supreme Court has already ruled they cannot be required to pay. In Hamidi v. SEIU, currently fully briefed at the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a group of California state employee nonmembers are challenging a union requirement that they must take an additional step to “opt out” of union dues the union admits are used for lawfully non-chargeable political activity.

“Union bosses assume that they’re entitled to a significant cut of workers’ hard-earned money when they force nonmembers to leap through bureaucratic hoops just to stop funding activities they didn’t sign up to fund in the first place,” said National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “The Foundation will continue to fight for these homecare providers to get their illegally-seized money back.”

“If the Supreme Court agrees with the National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney who argued the Janus case heard earlier this term, challenges like Riffey and Hamidi will likely be the next big issue when it comes to fully protecting the constitutional rights of government employees from forced unionism,” added Mix. “Ultimately, the Supreme Court should make it clear that individuals who have never joined a union cannot be required to take affirmative steps just to protect their First Amendment rights.”

Danville, CA (May 7, 2018) – With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a teenage, part-time Safeway employee has filed federal charges against a local union for demanding he pay union fees without providing the legally required information on union dues and spending.

Sixteen-year-old Christopher Ratana-Kelley filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 5. The charge states that by failing to disclose their local expenditures or to verify how union fees were calculated, UFCW officials violated his protected legal rights.

When Ratana-Kelley became a courtesy clerk at Safeway, UFCW officials demanded he pay union dues or fees despite choosing not to become a union member. California lacks a Right to Work law, which means workers can be required to pay some fees to union officials as a condition of employment. However, workers cannot be required to fund any activities unrelated to union bargaining, such as political action, and unions must follow certain procedures to justify the amount of the compulsory fee.

When the teenager objected to paying any fees to the UFCW beyond what he could legally be required to pay and asked for a breakdown of how his fees were calculated, union officials failed to provide the information. Concerned by being kept in in the dark about how his fees would be spent, Ratana-Kelley turned to the National Right to Work Foundation for free legal assistance in filing charges. The NLRB will now investigate the charges.

Because California does not have a Right to Work law, employees can be required to pay dues or fees to unions to keep their jobs, even if they are not union members. However, in the Foundation-won United States Supreme Court Beck decision, the Court provided some protection to workers by stating that employees can only be forced to pay union dues for certain union activity. Employees also have the right to have an independent third party audit the union expenditures and certify that the percentage of dues that nonmembers are forced to pay does not include political spending and other non-collective bargaining expenses.

“Christopher is a teenager just entering the workforce,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “It takes a lot of courage to stand up to a Goliath, and Christopher has chosen to hold the union giants accountable for their flagrant neglect of workers’ rights. This case underscores the need for California to pass a Right to Work law making union affiliation and dues payments completely voluntary.”