Springfield, Va. (July 25, 2005) – The following is a statement of Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, in response to the announcement by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) officials over the weekend that the union will leave the AFL-CIO labor conglomerate.

“The rift within the top echelon of the AFL-CIO is more about laying blame and jockeying for control of the union hierarchy than about helping workers. At the end of the day, both sides of the controversy are working toward the same goal of expanding their power and forcing more workers to join unions.

“The argument is over two sides of the same coin. Some union bosses would like to see even more resources diverted into politics with the goal of passing new laws that grant more coercive organizing privileges.

“Other union officials – such as those at the SEIU and Teamsters, and at the grocery, hotel, and textile unions – would like to see even more resources diverted to corporate campaigns and top-down organizing. These tactics involve attacking companies until they agree to hand over their employees into forced unionism without even so much as a vote of the employees.

“This political posturing within ultra-elite union hierarchies amounts to nothing more than a shell game by power-hungry union officials bent on control over more than $10 billion in compulsory union dues. In the end, it doesn’t matter who is steering Big Labor’s ship as long as individual workers continue to be strapped to the mast.

“Rather than working to preserve and expand their power to order workers to ‘pay up or be fired,’ union officials should work to improve their product in order to attract workers’ voluntary support.”

To schedule an interview with a Right to Work spokesperson, call Justin Hakes at 703-770-3317.

Denver, CO (July 21, 2005) – A local Safeway worker filed federal charges against the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 1 after union officials denied his right not to subsidize union politics and failing to provide him with a legally mandated audit of union expenditures.

Robert Wilson, an employee at a Safeway distribution center in Denver, obtained free legal assistance from attorneys with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on behalf of himself and roughly 20 similarly situated employees.

Wilson began working at the facility in 2003, and promptly submitted his resignation from formal union membership.

The charges claim that since Wilson’s resignation, union officials have failed to meet the legal requirements set forth in the Foundation-won Supreme Court decision Communication Workers v. Beck. Under Beck and subsequent NLRB rulings, union officials must inform employees of their right to refrain from formal union membership and the right not to be forced to pay for costs unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activity.

“Union officials want workers like Robert Wilson to simply shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Rather than respect the rights of workers they claim to represent, union officials are bullying workers to pay for political electioneering.”

Wilson alleges that union officials never honored the resignation of his formal union membership continued deducting the full forced dues amount from his paycheck. The union hierarchy has also failed to provide an independently audited breakdown of union expenditures as required by law. The NLRB will now investigate the charge and decide whether to issue a formal complaint and prosecute the union.

“The attempts by union officials to run roughshod over workers’ rights show the inevitable greed and corruption that flow from forced unionism,” said Gleason.

High Point, North Carolina (July 20, 2005) – A group of Thomas Built Buses (TBB) employees filed a motion late yesterday with the full National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington, DC, to allow them to bring some extraordinary last-ditch election misconduct to the attention of the agency.

The appeal of the NLRB Regional Director’s refusal even to consider employee objections raises a core legal question that could determine to what extent employees – not just unions and employers – have an independent ability to assert their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

Two days before the June 29 election, Scott Evitt, Human Resources General Manager for Freightliner issued an explosive memo announcing that TBB hourly-paid employees would have to pay higher health insurance premiums starting September 1, 2005.

UAW union operatives quickly circulated copies of the Evitt memo around the facility with “DID YOU SEE THIS” THE COST OF BEING NON-UNION JUST WENT UP!” written at the top.

The TBB employees allege that the last-minute intervention of their employer in announcing a major increase in benefit costs, tainted the election that granted United Auto Workers (UAW) union officials monopoly bargaining power over about 1,200 TBB employees. The workers objected to the extraordinary 11th hour move by the company, but the Regional Director refused to grant the employees’ motion to intervene, and therefore never even considered whether the misconduct tainted the election.

Employees opposing unionization report that this last ditch intervention by the company swung a large number of votes in favor of the union – ultimately resulting in a vote of 714 to 508. Under long-standing law, an intervention of this nature intended to influence the election is illegal, and the proper legal remedy is to set aside the election as tainted. Not surprisingly, neither the company nor the union objected to the election result, so the employees asked National Right to Work Foundation attorneys to assist them in intervening.

“We hope the Board recognizes that employees indeed have rights – regardless of whether company and union officials have cut a deal to undercut their freedom of choice,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “How can workers be denied the ability to challenge a tainted election when company and union officials seem to have acted hand in glove since the outset to turn the employees into dues-paying union members?”

Facing a formal complaint and prosecution by the NLRB, UAW and TBB/Freightliner officials agreed earlier this year to cancel a company-wide sweetheart deal in which union officials had unlawfully bargained to limit workers’ wage demands and made other concessions in exchange for Freightliner’s assistance in coercing workers to unionize.

Based on evidence provided by Foundation attorneys, the NLRB’s General Counsel also found that TBB/Freightliner officials provided unlawful assistance to the union and held unlawful “captive audience” speeches jointly with union officials to coerce employees to sign union authorization cards treated as “votes” for unionization.

Goshen, Ind. (July 7, 2005) – Approximately 200 employees at Cequent Towing Product’s Goshen facility have filed a “deauthorization” petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asking the agency to hold an election to rid their work place of mandatory union dues.

The employees filed the petition with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys after the agency has failed for 15 months to address an earlier petition for an election to throw out the union as the Cequent workers’ monopoly representative altogether.

While the majority of Cequent workers who signed the earlier “decertification” petition were awaiting an NLRB election to throw out the union that had been imposed upon them without even the basic protections of a secret ballot election, Cequent entered into a forced unionism contract with the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) union, authorizing the firing of any Cequent worker who refuses to pay forced union dues.

Under the National Labor Relations Act, employees have the right to call for a deauthorization election at any time. If 30% or more of the employees in the bargaining unit sign a deauthorization petition, the NLRB will conduct a secret ballot election to determine if a majority of the employees wish to cancel the forced union dues clause and restore employees’ freedom to decide whether to join or pay dues to the union.

“Cequent and USWA officials have negotiated away the freedom of the company’s employees,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Meanwhile, the NLRB has stood idly by while USWA officials cemented themselves in place and helped themselves to forced dues from workers’ paychecks.”

In March 2004, more than 230 workers signed the “decertification” petition, which was given to Cequent before it recognized the USWA union as their “exclusive bargaining representative.” If a decertification election is allowed and is successful, all Ceuqent employees then would be free to negotiate their own terms and conditions of employment.

In June 2004, the NLRB in Washington, DC, voted 3-2 to take up the Cequent case and consider whether union-opposition petitions signed by a majority of employees may be completely ignored during a so-called “card check” organizing drive. Workers at the facility found themselves unionized by the USWA union despite the fact that a majority of employees had submitted a petition expressing their desire to remain union free in advance of the union’s recognition by their employer as their “exclusive bargaining representative.” Cequent officials had implemented a “neutrality agreement” with the USWA union that severely limited employee freedoms.

The NLRB’s ultimate decision will impact the enforceability of controversial “neutrality agreements,” contracts between unions and employers under which the employer agrees to actively assist organizers in unionizing its workers.

High Point, North Carolina (July 6, 2005) – A group of Thomas Built Buses employees today filed a motion with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to overturn the results of a tainted union election that granted United Auto Workers (UAW) union officials monopoly bargaining power over roughly 1,200 Thomas Built employees.

In an extraordinary and illegal 11th hour intervention, Scott Evitt, Human Resources General Manager for Freightliner, issued a memo to all Thomas Built Buses employees in High Point on June 27, a day before the representation election, announcing that employees would have to pay higher health insurance premiums starting September 1, 2005. Evitt originally signed the illegal “neutrality agreement” between Freightliner and the UAW union and was embarrassed when federal officials filed a complaint and forced cancellation of the agreement. Mr. Evitt obviously had a strong interest in seeing that the union prevailed in the election.

Working in tandem, UAW union operatives circulated copies of the Evitt memo around the facility with “DID YOU SEE THIS” THE COST OF BEING NON-UNION JUST WENT UP!” written at the top.

Employees opposing unionization report that this last ditch intervention by the company swung a large number of votes in favor of the union. Such interventions are illegal, and the proper legal remedy is to set aside the election as tainted. The employees asked the National Right to Work Foundation for free legal assistance, and Foundation attorneys moved to intervene on their behalf.

“Mr. Evitt had egg on his face after the sweetheart deal he cut with the union brass to deliver employees into unionization blew up,” stated Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Fearing the exercise of the free will of employees, Mr. Evitt sought to sway employee sentiment in favor of unionization in an unlawful last-minute scare tactic.”

Facing prosecution by the NLRB, the UAW union and Freightliner officials agreed earlier this year to cancel outright a company-wide sweetheart deal in which union officials had unlawfully bargained to limit workers’ wage demands and made other concessions in exchange for Freightliner’s assistance in coercing workers to unionize.

Based on evidence provided by Foundation attorneys, the NLRB’s General Counsel found that Freightliner officials at Thomas Built provided unlawful assistance to the union and held unlawful “captive audience” speeches jointly with union officials to coerce employees to sign union authorization cards that were treated as “votes” in favor of unionization.

Bowing to pressure brought by UAW union operatives, Freightliner-DaimlerChrysler signed a so-called “neutrality agreement” that prohibited the traditional and less-abusive secret ballot election process. The company instead agreed to recognize the union on the basis of a majority of employees signing union authorization cards. Under the agreement, union organizers were given access to company facilities to browbeat workers into signing the cards.

Hampstead, MD (June 29, 2005) – With assistance from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, two local factory workers filed federal unfair labor practice charges today against the so called “UNITEHERE” union for failing to inform roughly 140 employees of their rights to withhold payment of union dues for politics, and refrain from formal union membership.

Janice Walsh and Ted Fotiou, on behalf of all similarly situated employees at Joseph A. Bank’s Hampstead distribution facility, charge that “UNITEHERE” officials unlawfully told workers that they must become or remain formal union members in order to keep their jobs. Furthermore, Walsh and Fotiou charge that union officials have been unlawfully deducting forced union dues for politics from their paychecks and refusing to provide legally mandated financial disclosures of union expenditures.

“Union officials want these workers to simply shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Rather than respect the rights of workers they claim to represent, union officials are bullying workers into bankrolling union politics.”

The actions of “UNITEHERE” union officials violate the rights of employees recognized under the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court decision, Communications Workers v. Beck. Under Beck and subsequent NLRB rulings, union officials must inform employees of their right to refrain from formal union membership and their right not to be forced to pay for costs unrelated to collective bargaining, such as politics.

Union officials have not simply refused to provide adequate financial audits to objecting non-members while claiming that nonmembers must pay 93% of full dues. The documents that union officials have turned over to Walsh and Fotiou actually prove that “UNITEHERE” officials have been using nonmember dues for legally non-chargeable activities, such as nationwide organizing and “public and international relations.”

The workers also accuse “UNITEHERE” officials of unlawfully requiring employees to annually renew their objections and falsely informing them that they must exhaust internal union appeals before instituting any court or administrative actions to protect their rights.

“These attempts by union officials to run roughshod over workers’ rights show the inevitable greed and corruption that flow from forced unionism,” said Gleason.

Fresno, Calif. (June 27, 2005) – National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys filed unfair labor practice charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against a local Fresno casino for stifling the free speech of workers opposing unionization.

James Terrazas’ charges, filed in recent days for similarly situated employees, come in the midst of an employee-initiated decertification campaign to strip the Unite-Here union of its monopoly bargaining privileges at Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino (Chukchansi Gold). The charges point out that the employer established several work rules in violation of federal labor law. Additionally, casino management enforced some of these rules discriminatorily—targeting only those employees favoring decertification of the union.

“Chukchansi Gold is doing the bidding of the Unite-Here union hierarchy by stifling employee dissent,” said Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason. “Employees should be allowed to exercise their freedom of speech—whether or not the union brass like what they hear.”

Chukchansi Gold originally recognized the Unite-Here union as the monopoly bargaining agent of 700-800 employees in November of 2004, as the result of a controversial “card-check” system in which union organizers bypass the less-abusive secret ballot election process and instead browbeat and mislead workers into signing cards that are counted as “votes” for unionization.

This coercive “card-check” campaign arose from legally suspect gaming compacts Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law last August. The compacts included a requirement forcing the affected casinos to enter into so-called “neutrality agreements” with local union officials. Under these coercive “neutrality agreements” union organizers are given full access to company facilities and employees’ personal information (including home addresses) as they seek signatures on union authorization cards.

In a related action, Foundation attorneys have asked the Department of Interior not to approve the California gaming compacts because they unlawfully deny employers their right to ensure that employees get a secret ballot election when choosing whether to unionize.

The Regional Director of the NLRB will now investigate Terrazas’ charges, and determine whether to issue a formal complaint.

Washington, D.C. (June 21, 2005) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation today applauded the Department of Labor’s (DOL) announcement yesterday that it will step up enforcement of President Bush’s executive order regarding forced union dues, but warned that far more must be done before employee rights are truly protected.

Signed by President Bush on February 17, 2001, Executive Order 13201 affects a small segment of the 12 million American employees compelled to pay union dues as a condition of employment. The order requires companies with federal contracts to inform workers of their rights under the Foundation-won Supreme Court decision in Communications Workers v. Beck.

Foundation attorneys won the Beck ruling at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988, establishing that objecting employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act may resign their formal union membership, and reclaim all forced union dues spent on activities other than collective bargaining, such as political expenditures.

In its announcement, DOL notified federal contractors that it will be spot-checking federal workplaces to assure that they are in compliance with the order.

“Though largely symbolic, President Bush’s executive order is a step toward curbing compulsory unionism abuse. Unless the National Labor Relations Board gets more serious about enforcing the law, union officials will continue to shake employees down for political contributions with virtual impunity,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation.

Implementation of the executive order’s modest protections was stalled by a spurious lawsuit filed by the United Auto Workers union crafted to deny workers access to information about their rights. Ultimately, with the help of Foundation attorneys, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the executive order.

Experts estimate that during the 2004 elections, union officials spent more than $800 million in workers’ dues on electioneering activities, nearly all of it paid for out of union dues collected from employees as a condition of employment. Gleason pointed out that even with full enforcement, the Beck precedent is far from a cure-all. Nevertheless, the Foundation’s free legal aid program has ensured that hundreds of thousands of workers are not paying for union political activities against their will.

“No one should be forced to join or pay dues to a union against their will,” stated Gleason. “While the DOL’s announcement is encouraging, the ultimate solution to truly guarantee workers’ rights is to abolish compulsory unionism, not to fashion new regulatory schemes and government bureaucracies to regulate its ill effects.”

Portland, Maine (June 16, 2005) — A group of twenty Maine state employees have filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against the Maine State Employees Association (MSEA) union and several senior State of Maine officials to block the seizure of compulsory union dues from the paychecks of thousands of nonunion state employees.

Receiving free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, the state workers charge that MSEA union officials are acting in concert with State of Maine officials to seize compulsory union dues from nonunion state employees’ paychecks without first providing them with a legally-mandated audit. The workers’ complaint charges State Controller Edward A. Karrass, among other top state officials, for signing an agreement with the union that threatens the First Amendment rights of thousands of public employees and forces them to subsidize union organizing expenses.

The employees filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine Portland Division. The workers allege that MSEA union officials will intentionally seize the forced union dues without first providing the financial disclosure and procedures required by a long-standing U.S. Supreme Court ruling that protects public employees from demands to pay for union political activity and other activities they may oppose.

Like many similar agreements around the country, the Maine monopoly bargaining agreement includes an “indemnification clause” in which the union promises to pay all legal costs state officials may incur in defending any suit that results from illegal seizures of compulsory dues. These agreements remove any incentive for the employer to ensure the union is not mistreating workers. Most courts have struck such agreements down as void as against public policy.

“MSEA union officials simply want nonunion state employees to shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Union operatives should not be allowed essentially to bribe city officials to do their dirty work by promising to reimburse all legal costs that arise out of violating state employees’ First Amendment rights.”

The state employees are asking the court to enjoin MSEA officials from seizing forced dues from any nonunion employee represented by the MSEA union until it provides a satisfactory independent audit of union expenditures.

The workers also seek class-action status for their case, and restitution to all state employees represented by MSEA union of all past forced dues.

Under the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court decision Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson, before collecting any forced dues, union officials must first provide an audited disclosure of the union’s expenses. Such audits are intended to ensure that forced union dues seized from nonunion public employees do not fund union activities unrelated to collective bargaining, such as politics.

Washington, D.C. (June 1, 2005) — A three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit yesterday unanimously upheld the authority of the Department of Labor to heighten federal union financial disclosure requirements. Agreeing with arguments made in an amicus curiae brief filed by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, the panel determined that strengthening the reporting laws was well within the authority of Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao.

Secretary 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.

In June 2004, AFL-CIO lawyers filed an appeal after District Court Judge Gladys Kessler upheld the new union financial disclosure requirements. Judge Kessler, who has ruled for Big Labor officials in other cases, called AFL-CIO lawyers’ arguments “unconvincing.”

In August 2004, Foundation attorneys filed their “friend of the court” brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals in opposition to the AFL-CIO’s appeal.

“This ruling affirms that not only did Secretary Chao have the authority to do what she did, but she should have gone much further,” said Foundation President Mark Mix. “Much more, such as an independent audit requirement or an itemization requirement for expenses beyond simply incidental expenses, needs to be done before rampant union corruption is deterred.”

The National Right to Work Foundation earlier criticized the curious last-minute raising of the threshold for itemization of expenditures in the final disclosure rules. In the last days before the rules were finalized, the itemization threshold was raised to $5,000 from an originally proposed level of $250, allowing the concealment of many union disbursements on the new forms.

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

For example, 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 have asserted that most unions should be able to satisfy the new reporting requirements with little additional financial burden.