Worker’s Unfair Labor Practice Charges Force Verizon and Its Unions to End Illegal Discrimination Scheme
Tampa, FL (June 4, 2009) – Today, National Right to Work Foundation attorneys announced they have reached a settlement for a Verizon Communications employee who was discriminated against by the company and union bosses because she exercised her right to refrain from union membership.
Angela Leitzel works as a field technician for Verizon in Tampa, Florida. Because Florida is one of 22 Right to Work states, Leitzel may not be compelled to pay any union dues, although she must accept unwanted “representation” of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 824 union bosses.
In February, Verizon assembled a team of Florida-based technicians, including Leitzel, for a work assignment in California out of a facility “represented” by Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 9588 and affiliates CWA International and CWA District 9. On February 17, Verizon removed Leitzel from the project, and a company representative informed her that she could not work on the project, because she was not a member of IBEW Local 824.
On March 9, Leitzel was again barred from another team going to California to perform work for Verizon. The company informed her that CWA officials would not permit her to work at the California facility because she was not a member of IBEW Local 824.
With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation, Leitzel filed unfair labor practice charges against Verizon and the unions. Federal labor law forbids employers to discriminate against employees on the basis of non-membership in a union. Moreover, CWA officials committed unfair labor practices by encouraging Verizon to discriminate against her and failing to inform her of her rights in California, which has no Right to Work law, to refrain from union membership and pay reduced fees, rights established in the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court precedent CWA v. Beck (1988).
The NLRB Regional Director in Tampa agreed with the charges and threatened to issue a complaint against the unions and the company, so they sought to settle the case to avoid a costly and embarrassing legal battle. The settlement guarantees Leitzel full compensation for lost income related to her removal from work, and the company and unions agreed to cease all illegal discrimination on account of union affiliation. A notice to be posted at Verizon workplaces in Tampa and Bradenton, Florida, and in Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino, and San Fernando, California, will inform other Verizon employees that such union discrimination is illegal.
“California should take a lesson from Florida: no employee should ever be forced to join or pay fees to an unwanted union,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The only way to eliminate collusion between Big Business and Big Labor to discriminate against independent-minded employees is to eliminate forced unionism altogether.”
Union Czars Betray Duty to Workers, Attack National Right to Work
Recently Politico reported on a new Big Labor tactic to help pass the latest union boss power grab, the woefully misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (more accurately called the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill). Politico acquired a revealing letter and accompanying survey sent by Teamsters Local 507 in Cleveland to Wall Street fund managers:
"Has your company made any public statements in support or opposition to EFCA?" asks one of nine pointed questions in a polite, detailed four-page questionnaire.
"If ‘Yes,’ please explain."
The cover letter, signed by the local’s Secretary-Treasurer and President, makes the union’s purpose even more clear:
As a trustee, I have an obligation to determine whether our fund’s asset managers are engaged in partisan political activity that could adversely affect our fund, its participants, and beneficiaries. I therefore request that you complete the enclosed Asset Manger [sic] Survey to disclose your firm’s political spending and activity with regard to this important issue and return it to me with in the next couple of weeks.
Apparently they don’t actually know what being a trustee of a pension fund entails. They have a fiduciary duty to ensure the financial health of the union members’ pension fund. But here, these union bosses are putting politics, lobbying, and their desire to crush more workers under the thumb of forced unionism ahead of their fiduciary duty.
The Teamsters Local 507 union bosses — likely as part of a wider strategy of the Change to Win union cartel — want to know whether a company managing their pension funds has in any way opposed the job-killing, freedom-crushing Card Check Forced Unionism bill, by taking a public position, supporting certain politicians, or having any kind of relationship with various organizations, including the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which they list by name.
The National Right to Work Foundation is a charitable, nonprofit organization which provides free legal aid to the victims of compulsory unionism, including victims of card check intimidation. Foundation attorneys are bracing for the cries for help from countless workers who will face ugly intimidation and violence if the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill becomes law, thereby making the less-abusive secret ballot election for union certification a dead letter.
New Right to Work Podcast: Part 2 of Mark Mix on the Jason Lewis Show
In part two of his interview with Jason Lewis, Foundation President Mark Mix discusses card check, binding arbitration, and Big Labor’s political machinery. Click here to listen or use the embedded player below:
New Foundation Press Release: Los Angeles Times Employees Illegally Threatened with Lawsuit for Refusing to Pay Union Dues
Here’s the latest from the Foundation’s press room:
With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Los Angeles Times employee has filed unfair labor practice charges against newspaper and union officials for threatening him with an illegal lawsuit.
Over the past six months, union officials from the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (GCC/IBT) Local 140-N have repeatedly ordered Leon Carey, Jr. and similarly situated employees to join the union and pay full dues or face a lawsuit in California civil court, citing a clause in the union’s contract with the Los Angeles Times. Carey’s charges allege that these actions violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which prohibits union officials from restraining or coercing workers who refrain from formal, full dues-paying union membership.
Click here to read the whole thing. For more on the Foundation’s frequent courtroom clashes with the notoriously-corrupt Teamster union, click here.
Los Angeles Times Employees Illegally Threatened with Lawsuit for Refusing to Pay Union Dues
Los Angeles, CA (June 1, 2009) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Los Angeles Times employee has filed unfair labor practice charges against newspaper and union officials for threatening him with an illegal lawsuit.
Over the past six months, union officials from the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (GCC/IBT) Local 140-N have repeatedly ordered Leon Carey, Jr. and similarly situated employees to join the union and pay full dues or face a lawsuit in California civil court, citing a clause in the union’s contract with the Los Angeles Times. Carey’s charges allege that these actions violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which prohibits union officials from restraining or coercing workers who refrain from formal, full dues-paying union membership.
Because California is not a Right to Work state, employees can be obligated to pay union dues related to collective bargaining as a condition of employment. However, employees are not obligated to formally join a union or pay dues for activities other than workplace negotiations, such as lobbying and electioneering.
Moreover, union officials must provide nonunion workers with an independently-audited breakdown of all union expenditures, which is required to allow nonunion employees to opt out of dues unrelated to collective bargaining. In addition to threatening nonunion employees with an illegal lawsuit, Teamster officials also failed to provide them with sufficient information on the union’s financial outlays.
The charges will now be investigated by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
“It’s bad enough that employees can be forced to pay union dues just to keep a job, but these thuggish tactics are completely uncalled for,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Making union membership and dues-payment completely voluntary is the only way to prevent this type of abuse in the future, which is why California desperately needs a Right to Work law.”
New Right to Work Podcast: Mark Mix on the Jason Lewis Show
Foundation President Mark Mix sits down with radio host Jason Lewis to discuss monopoly bargaining, forced unionism and Big Labor’s massive political clout. Click here to download the episode or use the embedded player below:
The second and third parts of the interview are available here and here. You can also listen to the Foundation’s podcast via iTunes or manually subscribe to the feed.
Seven Employees Force Settlement with Teamster Local Union Brass
Seven Employees Force Settlement with Teamster Local Union Brass
Right to Work Attorneys help employees after union officials levy more than $200,000 in confiscatory fines
Chicago, IL (May 29, 2009) – With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, seven employees who refused to abandon their jobs during a strike forced a settlement with a local union after union officials levied exorbitant and illegal retaliatory fines against them.
The employees, truck drivers for industrial laundry company Lechner and Sons, filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Teamsters Local Union 731, an affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, after Local 731 union officials hit the employees with fines ranging from $13,946 to $40,000 each for not abandoning their jobs during a strike. None of the employees were truly voluntary members of the union during the strike.
In July 2006, Local 731 union bosses ordered the employees to abandon their jobs during a so-called “sympathy strike” involving a different bargaining unit of workers at the plant where the strike occurred. After the strike ended in June 2007, union brass claimed the power to use fines to discipline non-striking employees.
(Continue reading this news release…)
(Click here to see a copy of a Teamsters Local 731 strike fines notice in which Teamster union bosses claimed the power to use $40,000 worth of fines to discipline one of the non-striking employees.)
Seven Employees Force Settlement with Teamster Local Union Brass
Chicago, IL (May 29, 2009) – With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, seven employees who refused to abandon their jobs during a strike forced a settlement with a local union after union officials levied exorbitant and illegal retaliatory fines against them.
The employees, truck drivers for industrial laundry company Lechner and Sons, filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Teamsters Local Union 731, an affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, after Local 731 union officials hit the employees with fines ranging from $13,946 to $40,000 each for not abandoning their jobs during a strike. None of the employees were truly voluntary members of the union during the strike.
In July 2006, Local 731 union bosses ordered the employees to abandon their jobs during a so-called “sympathy strike” involving a different bargaining unit of workers at the plant where the strike occurred. After the strike ended in June 2007, union brass claimed the power to use fines to discipline non-striking employees.
Union officials never informed any of the employees of their right to refrain from formal union membership and pay a reduced amount of forced dues. Instead, union officials mislead the employees into believing that formal, full-dues-paying union membership was a condition of employment.
The union hierarchy also claimed the power to discipline two employees for working during the strike even though they were not union members during the strike. The union bosses illegally threatened one employee that if he did not pay the fine, he would never again work in a “union shop.”
With help from Foundation attorneys, the employees forced Local 731 union officials to drop the fines against the seven workers and refund part of their forced dues.
“It is unconscionable for union bosses to mislead employees into union membership and then attempt to drive them into the poorhouse in vicious retaliation for working,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Confiscatory fines and kangaroo courts are just some of the disturbing, yet increasingly-used tactics of union boss intimidation that are all too common in states like Illinois where there is no Right to Work law on the books.”
The employees at the workplace have since decertified the Teamster union as their monopoly bargaining agent.
(Click here to see a copy of a Teamsters Local 731 strike fines notice in which Teamster union bosses claimed the power to use $40,000 worth of fines to discipline one of the non-striking employees.)
NRTW President Mark Mix: “Freedom in the workplace always wins — even in Michigan.”
Thursday’s Detroit News extensively quotes National Right to Work president Mark Mix in an informative piece about why Michigan needs a Right to Work law.
Right to Work protections in 22 states ensure that no worker can be compelled, as a condition or employment, to join or pay dues to an unwanted union.
The militant United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which is notorious for launching intimidating card check organizing campaigns and whose unions bosses frequently whine about Right to Work, is particularly dominant in Michigan, where its forced unionism relationship with the "Big Three" automakers in Detroit has been a major cause in Michigan’s economic depression (and yet, the Obama Administration is rewarding UAW union brass with a majority stake in Chrysler).
But as Mix tells the Detroit News, the struggle for employee freedom in Michigan won’t be easy even though the forced unionism economic devastion is so patently obvious:
Mix, nonetheless, remains optimistic. He said interest is picking up in all the Rust Belt states because workers are wondering if what they’ve been promised is really going to happen or if their benefits will even be held intact. The Chrysler bankruptcy and soon to be GM filing has raised some union worker eyebrows, he said.
Of course, Michigan isn’t likely to become the 23rd state to change its ways, but that doesn’t stop Mix and his colleagues from answering worker phone calls.
"There is hope," Mix said. "Freedom in the workplace always wins — even in Michigan."
Click here to read the rest of the article.
Keep Up With the Latest from the National Right to Work Foundation
The National Right to Work Foundation is just the place to get the latest developments on the fight against compulsory unionism. There are several ways to learn about the daily developments in America’s Right to Work movement:
- Get the News – Check out Foundation’s News & Press section to be informed on the legal challenges workers face and the Foundation’s frequent legal victories. Also check out the media’s coverage about some of the Foundation’s efforts on our Delicious bookmarks webpage.
- Receive Email Alerts – Sign up to get exclusive Foundation emails sent right into your inbox. There is a sign-up box in on the top right corner of every page on our site.
- Watch our Videos – Check out our Youtube and Eyeblast channels to get video updates about NRTW, its cases, and how it helps average working Americans fight the evils of compulsory unionism. Right now, you can watch our latest featured video on how the Foundation is using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to urge the Obama Administration to shed some light on its connections to Big Labor’s top political operatives.
- Listen – Hear the voices of the Right to Work movement delve into a broad range of topics on workplace freedom with the National Right to Work podcast. In our latest podcast, the National Right to Work Committee’s Greg Mourad sits down with WCHS radio hosts Michael Agnello and Rick Johnson to discuss card check’s legislative prospects. You can also listen to the Foundation’s podcast via iTunes or manually subscribe to the feed.
- Network With Fellow Supporters – Join our Facebook.com group and follow our Twitter page to connect with other Right to Work supporters from across the country. The latest press releases, blog posts, and videos can be found on the Facebook group’s profile page – while the discussion board allows group members talk about current issues relating to compulsory unionism. Follow the Foundation on Twitter to get Foundation updates at home, work, or on-the-go.
- Subscribe to our Newsletter – Read the latest edition of the National Right to Work Foundation’s newsletter, Foundation Action. Foundation Action is a great resource to learn about the Foundation’s groundbreaking efforts in the courts. Sign up for your free subscription today. Subscribers will receive a hard copy in their mailbox every two months.
- Read a Book – Receive a free book from the Foundation. In Stranglehold: How union bosses have hijacked our government, Reed Larson reveals the astonishing story of how Big Labor acquired incredible power over local, state, and national government in America and how the very existence of our democratic institutions are under siege as a result. In Union Dues and Religious Do Nots, Foundation attorney Bruce Cameron provides a how-to guide to employees with strong religious convictions who want to exercise their right to refrain from formal, dues-paying union membership if they morally object to the union bosses’ political agenda. Get your free copy here today.
And of course, continue to log on to the Freedom@Work blog, the best place to get the scoop on the battle against forced unionism.
