Second AT&T BellSouth Worker Hits CWA Union With Federal Charges for Illegally Seizing Worker Money
Employee challenges coercive union tactic of restricting when workers can cut off union financial support
Miami, FL (March 17, 2025) – Amanda Marc, an employee of AT&T BellSouth Communications, has filed federal charges against the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union and its local affiliates, maintaining that CWA union officials are imposing illegal restrictions on her and her coworkers’ right to opt out of union dues payments. Marc filed her charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law, which includes investigating and prosecuting unfair labor practices and administering votes to install or remove unions in workplaces. Marc’s charges challenge the CWA union’s use of “window period” restrictions to limit to just ten days per year the time in which workers can demand that dues deductions cease from their paychecks. Window periods are widely used by union officials as a way to keep money flowing from dissenting workers towards the union’s agenda, and Marc’s charges seek a ruling that this practice is unlawful under federal labor law.
Marc’s charges contend that while federal labor law permits dues deduction authorization documents to be irrevocable for one year after employees initially sign them, any further window periods or other restrictions on workers’ legally-protected right to cut off dues after that period has elapsed violate the National Labor Relations Act:
“It is unlawful to have any window period for revocations after the first year of the payroll deduction authorization form. [Federal labor law] does not contain any reference to ‘window periods’…The unions have no statutory license to create tricky and arbitrary ‘window periods’ to force unwilling employees to keep paying dues.”
Because Marc and her colleagues work in the Right to Work state of Florida, CWA union bosses are forbidden from forcing workers to pay any union dues or fees as a condition of keeping their jobs, though CWA union officials are ostensibly trying to cabin the exercise of this freedom with their window period scheme. In states that lack Right to Work protections, in contrast, union officials can force employees to pay fees to the union or be terminated, meaning even perfect compliance with a union boss’s arbitrary window period restriction would not completely free a worker from union payments.
AT&T Worker Joins Colleague in Revealing Blatantly Illegal CWA Dues Deduction Practices
Marc’s charges state that she and many of her coworkers resigned their union memberships in August 2024, which was around when CWA union officials ordered AT&T BellSouth workers out on a strike. Despite Marc’s requests to end union membership and stop financial support for the union, the charges read, CWA agents never responded to either demand, and never even informed Marc of the window period dates in which they would consider her requests valid.
In addition to challenging the use of window periods as a whole, Marc’s charges point out several other unlawful aspects of CWA bosses’ union dues collection scheme, including a requirement that dues revocation requests be made “by individual letters sent by certified mail only.” CWA union bosses also failed to inform employees that, by law, they have an opportunity to opt out of union dues deductions on the anniversary date of when they signed the dues checkoff and aren’t just restricted to the arbitrary window period imposed by the union.
Marc’s filing comes just days after Foundation attorneys submitted federal charges against CWA union bosses on behalf of another AT&T BellSouth worker, Sofia Hernaiz. Hernaiz declares in her charges that CWA union officials tried to subject her to internal discipline for not participating in the August 2024 strike, even though she had resigned her union membership beforehand and by law can’t be subject to such proceedings. Similar to Marc, Hernaiz also details that CWA union officials did not acknowledge her attempt to cut off dues deductions to the union, nor informed her of what the union’s window period restrictions were.
“Ms. Marc, in standing up for her and her coworkers’ freedom to stop subsidizing unwanted CWA union officials, is also mounting an unprecedented challenge to the ‘window period’ gambit. This scheme has been manipulated by union officials across the country to yank financial support out of unwilling workers for far too long,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Forthcoming NLRB Trump appointees should use cases like this to rule that such practices that serve only to enrich union boss hierarchies are unlawful.
“It is time to reorient the Board’s mission toward defending the individual right of every American worker to associate or dissociate with a union as he or she pleases,” added Mix. “For too long, NLRB officials have rigged federal law to enhance union boss power at the expense of the rights and freedoms of the very workers the Act purports to protect.”
Kentucky Worker Hits Steelworkers Union with Complaint for Violation of Right to Work Law
The following article is from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation’s bi-monthly Foundation Action Newsletter, September/October 2022 edition. To view other editions of Foundation Action or to sign up for a free subscription, click here.
Steelworkers union bosses seized illegal dues despite passage of Right to Work law in 2017
The sun has long set on forced union dues in Right to Work Kentucky, but Melva Hernandez reports in her Foundation-backed complaint that union officials are ignoring Right to Work and continue to seize money from her wages illegally.
FRANKFORT, KY – Despite Kentucky’s enactment of a Right to Work law in 2017, some union bosses still act as if Kentucky’s popular law, which safeguards an employee’s right to refrain from formal union membership and dues payment, doesn’t even exist.
Melva Hernandez, who just finished a stint at paper bag manufacturer Duro Hilex Poly in Erlanger, KY, says that Steelworkers union officials forced her into union membership and dues payments when she began working at the facility in 2011. Kentucky’s Right to Work protections didn’t exist at that time to protect her from such coercive demands.
As August 2021 rolled around, however, Hernandez exercised her right to revoke her membership and union dues deduction authorization, thinking that the recently enacted law would permit her dissociation from the union.
Instead, Steelworkers union chiefs illegally rejected her request, scolded her for exercising her rights, and to date have not returned the money they seized from her paycheck in complete violation of Kentucky’s Right to Work law.
Officials Ignored Right to Work, Sought to Control Employee Speech
With free legal representation from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys, Hernandez submitted a complaint this June to Kentucky Labor Cabinet Secretary Jamie Link, asking him to prosecute the union for flouting Right to Work. Because the dues seizures and other conduct the union perpetrated are also illegal under federal law, she has also filed federal charges at National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 9 in Cincinnati.
Hernandez’s complaint to the Kentucky Labor Cabinet recounts that she first submitted a letter to union officials in August 2021, exercising her right to end her union membership and all dues deductions to the union. A union agent rejected her request, alleging that it would only be accepted within a so-called “escape period” of days created by union officials. The complaint says Hernandez resubmitted her request in April 2022 on a date falling within the “escape period,” only to be redirected by union agents to Steelworkers Local 832 President Tara Purnhagen.
After Hernandez tendered her resignation to Purnhagen, “Ms. Purnhagen scolded and harassed me, accusing me of trying to convince my fellow co-workers to drop their union memberships,” Hernandez’s complaint says. Purnhagen also forbade Hernandez from discussing with her coworkers reasons to refrain from union membership.
KY Labor Secretary Appointed by RTW Opponent Beshear
“As of today’s filing, the company and the union have not reimbursed me for the money seized in union dues in violation of Kentucky law,” the complaint says.
The Kentucky Labor Cabinet Secretary is responsible under state law for investigating and prosecuting violations of Kentucky’s Right to Work protections. However, the current secretary, Jamie Link, was appointed by Gov. Andy Beshear, a noted union boss political ally and opponent of Right to Work protections. Teacher union bosses alone pumped well over $1 million into pro-Beshear super PACs last election cycle. It remains to be seen whether Link will shirk his duty to enforce the Right to Work law.
“Steelworkers union officials behave as if Kentucky’s Right to Work protections don’t exist, enforcing contracts that blatantly contradict the law and demanding illegal dues from rank-and-file workers like Ms. Hernandez in clear violation of their rights,” commented National Right to Work Foundation Vice President and Legal Director Raymond LaJeunesse. “Secretary Link must prosecute this blatant disregard for workers’ rights under Kentucky law and show that no one is above the law, including politically connected union bosses.”
NJ, Chicago Educators Push for Supreme Court Review of Anti-Janus Schemes
The following article is from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation’s bi-monthly Foundation Action Newsletter, July/August 2021 edition. To view other editions of Foundation Action or to sign up for a free subscription, click here.
Two petitions ask High Court to hear challenges to union boss-concocted ‘escape periods’
Plaintiff and Chicago Public Schools teacher Ifeoma Nkemdi called CTU union militants’ retaliation against her “a dishonor to the profession of education.” Her lawsuit seeks to force CTU bosses to respect her Janus rights.
WASHINGTON, DC – Staff attorneys from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation have just submitted petitions for writ of certiorari in two class-action civil rights cases seeking to enforce workers’ First Amendment rights. In both cases, public educators are fighting union boss-created restrictions on their First Amendment right to refrain from funding unwanted union hierarchies in their workplaces.
One petition was filed for Chicago Public Schools educators Joanne Troesch and Ifeoma Nkemdi, whose lawsuit against the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and the Chicago Board of Education challenges an “escape period” scheme that blocks workers from exercising, outside the month of August, their right to terminate dues deductions from their paychecks.
A second petition was filed in a lawsuit brought by New Jersey teachers Susan Fischer and Jeanette Speck, who are suing the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) union for enforcing a similar annual window that restricts employees in the exercise of their Janus rights to just 10 days annually, less than 3% of the year.
Constraints Clearly Violate Janus Mandate of Affirmative Consent to Dues
Both lawsuits argue that these union dues “escape periods” run afoul of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, which was argued and won by Foundation staff attorneys in 2018. In Janus, the court ruled that no public worker can be forced to pay union dues or fees as a condition of keeping their job.
The Court further held that union bosses contravene the First Amendment if they seize any money from an employee’s paycheck without their affirmative consent and a knowing waiver of that employee’s First Amendment rights. Both petitions say public sector union officials’ “escape period” schemes breach this requirement.
Union Honchos Snubbed Exercise of Janus Rights, Kept Taking Money
Fischer and Speck, who both work in Ocean Township, NJ, attempted to exercise their Janus rights in July 2018, just a month after the High Court handed down the Janus decision. But Township officials told the teachers they could only stop payments and withdraw their memberships during an annual 10-day window. Unbeknownst to the teachers, union partisans in the New Jersey legislature had actually established that “escape period” by law in May 2018 in an apparent attempt to defang the pending Janus decision.
In Chicago, Troesch and Nkemdi’s complaint explains, both educators “did not know they had a constitutional right not to financially support” the union hierarchy until the fall of 2019, when they discovered their Janus rights while looking for information on how to continue working during a strike that CTU bosses ordered that October. They sent letters the same month to CTU officials to exercise their Janus right to resign union membership and cut off all dues deductions.
Both educators received no response until November of that year, when CTU officials confirmed receipt of the letters but said that they would continue to seize dues from the teachers’ paychecks “until September 1, 2020,” as per the union’s “escape period” scheme.
Teachers Urge Dissolution of ‘Escape Periods,’ Refunds for Them and Coworkers
Both lawsuits demand that union and government officials cease enforcing “escape periods,” properly apprise the educators’ coworkers of their right to end dues deductions any time, and allow any bargaining unit member to reclaim dues that have already been seized from them under such arrangements. Additionally, both cases seek to overturn state laws that codify “escape periods.”
“‘Escape periods’ like those forced on Troesch, Nkemdi, Fischer and Speck serve no purpose other than to keep shoveling into union coffers the hard-earned cash of public servants who oppose union officials’ so-called ‘representation,’ even after those employees have clearly exercised their First Amendment right to object to such payments,” commented National Right to Work Foundation Vice President and Legal Director Raymond LaJeunesse. “With opposition to these schemes growing among public employees, the Supreme Court should quickly take up this issue and clarify that Janus does not permit union bosses to profit from curtailing workers’ constitutional rights.”
