Kaiser Permanente Hospital Employee Slams SEIU with Federal Charge for Illegal Dues Demands and Termination Threats
Charge: SEIU officials illegally threatened to have worker fired if she didn’t sign union membership card and authorize dues deductions
Los Angeles, CA (October 21, 2024) – Nadine Reyes, a Los Angeles-based Kaiser Permanente Hospital worker, has filed federal charges against the Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers (SEIU-UHW) after union officials falsely claimed full, formal union membership was a condition of her employment, additionally, union officials threatened to have her fired if she didn’t sign membership and dues deduction cards. Reyes is receiving free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
Under longstanding law it is illegal to require full union membership (known as a “closed shop” arrangement) as a condition of employment. Further, employees can be required to sign a union dues deduction cards that authorize union officials to collect dues directly from their paycheck.
“SEIU bosses attempted to take advantage of me and threatened me, assuming I didn’t know my rights or wouldn’t stand up for myself,” commented Reyes about her case. “But I knew what they were doing was wrong, and I’m standing up for myself against their bullying.”
In states without Right to Work laws like California, union officials must follow certain requirements to justify the amount of forced union fees someone must pay to get or keep a job. Under the Foundation-won Communications Workers of America v. Beck Supreme Court decision, union officials cannot force employees who have abstained from union membership to pay dues or fees for anything beyond union boss expenditures unrelated to union monopoly bargaining activities.
Union political and lobbying expenditures, which regularly are included in full membership dues, are among those expenses that Beck prevents union officials from forcing nonmember workers into funding under threat of termination. Nonmember employees who exercise their Beck rights are also entitled to an independent audit of the union’s finances and a breakdown of how union officials calculated the mandatory fee amount.
“Nadine Reyes is just the latest victim of SEIU threats, and another example of union officials prioritizing their own greed and power over the rights of those they claim to ‘represent,’” observed National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Cases like this show why California workers need Right to Work protections, so Big Labor bosses are required to earn the voluntary support of rank-and-file employees, not be allowed to extort dissenting workers by threatening to have them fired.”
Nurses at Ascension Genesys Hospital Slam Teamsters Local 332 Officials with Federal Charges for Illegal Dues Demands
In months following repeal of Michigan Right to Work law, workers across the state are standing up to oppose forced dues
Flint, MI (July 19, 2024) – Two nurses at Ascension Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc Township, MI, have hit the Teamsters Local 332 union with federal unfair labor practice charges, maintaining that union bosses threatened to fire them and other nurses if they didn’t sign forms authorizing union officials to deduct dues straight out of their paychecks. The nurses, Madrina Wells and Lynette Doyle, filed their unfair labor practice charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.
The charges from Wells and Doyle are the most recent in a flurry of Foundation-backed cases for Michigan workers who are seeking to challenge or escape union bosses’ coercive power in the wake of Michigan’s repeal of its Right to Work law. Since the repeal became effective this February, union bosses have had the legal power to require workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. In states with Right to Work protections, union membership and all union financial support are strictly voluntary.
The NLRB is the agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law in the private sector. Even in states like Michigan that lack Right to Work protections, and allow for forced-fee requirements, longstanding federal law prohibits union bosses from requiring workers to authorize the direct deduction of union dues from their paychecks. The Foundation-won Communications Workers of America v. Beck Supreme Court decision additionally forbids union bosses in non-Right to Work states from forcing workers to pay money for any activities beyond the union’s bargaining functions, such as political expenditures.
NLRB agents will now investigate Wells’ and Doyle’s charges. According to both, Teamsters officials threatened them “and similarly situated employees with termination of their employment if they refused to complete and submit a dues check-off authorization by July 12th.”
“I already had issues with Teamsters bosses illegally demanding money from me when Right to Work was in force,” commented Mardrina Wells. “Back then, I at least knew that I was defending my right to pay nothing at all to Teamsters bosses I disapprove of. It’s ridiculous that they now have the power to force me to pay them, but I’ll defend what rights I do have.”
Post-Right to Work, Michigan Workers Battle New Union Boss Privileges
In a party-line 2023 vote, Michigan legislators repealed Right to Work at the behest of union special interests, ending workers’ ability to decide for themselves whether or not union officials deserve their dues money. The imposition of union bosses’ power to force employees to “pay up or be fired” came despite polling showing Michiganders, including those in union households, overwhelmingly opposed the elimination of workers’ Right to Work protections.
After the repeal became effective this February, workers from across the Great Lakes State sought help from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys in escaping union bosses’ forced-dues demands. Foundation-backed workers from MV Transportation in Ypsilanti and Brown Motors in Petoskey just scored victories earlier this week, as NLRB officials certified their majority votes to strip Amalgamated Transit Union and Teamsters union officials respectively of their power to demand dues as a condition of employment. Such a vote, known as a “deauthorization election,” is triggered when 30% of employees in a work unit express support for one on a petition.
Foundation attorneys are also aiding Grand Rapids-based security guard James Reamsma and his coworkers posted at government buildings across Western Michigan with a deauthorization vote against United Government Security Officers of America (UGSOA) union officials. Reamsma expressed that, in the wake of the Right to Work repeal, “UGSOA union officials have threatened to have everyone who does not join the union fired.”
“Michigan union bosses prioritize seizing dues over respecting workers’ individual rights, and have only been emboldened by the legislature’s partisan repeal of Right to Work,” observed National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “But Michigan workers have been increasingly standing up to defend what rights they still have against union coercion, and it’s important that every worker learn those rights as union officials continue to exploit the new forced-unionism environment.”
Maine Medical Center Nurses Secure Vote to Remove Unwanted Maine State Nurses Association Union Officials’ ‘Representation’
More than 500 workers petitioned for union “decertification election” seeking a vote as soon as allowed following imposition of unwanted union
Portland, ME (July 21, 2022) – Maine Medical Center nurses will soon vote in an election that could send Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA-NNU, an affiliate of National Nurses United) union officials packing from the hospital. This follows Nurse Davin Brooks’ submission of a petition containing signatures of more than 500 of his colleagues.
Brooks and his fellow nurses are receiving free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The petition comes as Foundation staff attorneys are increasingly assisting healthcare workers in obtaining votes to remove unwanted unions, including in Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Massachusetts.
The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal private-sector labor law, a duty which includes conducting votes to both certify and decertify unions. Foundation staff attorneys recommended reforms the NLRB adopted in 2020 that significantly eased processes by which workers can request a vote to remove an unwanted union. Those reforms included limiting union officials’ ability to manipulate often-unverified allegations of employer wrongdoing to stop an employee-requested union decertification vote.
Union Installed Through Dubious Mail-Ballot Process, Employees Soon Wanted Ouster
MSNA union officials were originally installed at Maine Medical Center in Portland in May 2021, after the NLRB conducted a mail-ballot union certification vote among the hospital employees. Mail-ballot NLRB elections, which before COVID were very rare and only held where in-person votes were not feasible, have lower turnout rates than standard in-person elections. Studies show mail-ballot elections benefit union organizers in part due to that lower turnout. Conducting such votes through the mail also has resulted in post office errors that disenfranchise workers, and ballot harvesting by union organizers that undermines the privacy of workers’ votes.
Since the union was installed last year, MSNA union officials and Maine Medical Center management have been unable to finalize a contract. Brooks filed the decertification petition signed by his coworkers in June, the soonest allowed by the NLRB’s “election bar” which prevents more than one such election within a year. The election is scheduled for August 17 and 18, and will be held in person at multiple Maine Medical Center locations.
“Maine Medical Center employees are more than reasonable in their desire to oust MSNA union officials, who came to power at the facility through a questionable mail-ballot vote and have failed to produce a contract in over a year,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “No healthcare worker should be subject to the monopoly control of a union that they don’t believe serves their interests. We are proud to aid Mr. Brooks and his coworkers in exercising their right to free themselves of union officials that clearly made promises to nurses on which the union could not actually deliver.”
Case Closed: Nurse Prevails in 11-Year Legal Fight Over Forced Dues
The following article is from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation’s bi-monthly Foundation Action Newsletter, January/February 2022 edition. To view other editions of Foundation Action or to sign up for a free subscription, click here.
100 Rhode Island hospital employees win refund of dues illegally seized for union lobbying
After over a decade of battling power-hungry UNAP union bosses in court, Jeanette Geary has secured not only refunds of dues seized for union politics, but a First Circuit decision clarifying non-members can never be charged for union lobbying.
WARWICK, RI – Jeanette Geary finally achieved a total victory in her 11-year legal battle against union bosses. She and 99 other current and former nurses at Kent Hospital in Rhode Island received refunds of forced dues that were illegally used to support union lobbying in state legislatures. Foundation attorneys represented Geary throughout her fight.
Geary’s journey began when she grew frustrated with United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP) union bosses in her workplace. “I realized what the union was doing,” Geary explained. “The union leadership had no interest in nurses or our professional work. Their only interest was collection of dues and fees.”
Geary resigned her union membership, but union dues were still extracted from her paycheck because Rhode Island is a forced unionism state that lacks Right to Work protections. However, thanks to the Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision, nonmember workers can only be forced to pay fees for union activities “germane” to union monopoly bargaining. They cannot be forced to pay the portion of dues that funds activities like union lobbying.
Nurse Harassed for Standing Up to Union Bosses
Geary demanded a breakdown of the union’s expenditures, but union bosses refused to give her a legally required independent auditor’s verification of how they calculated non-members’ reduced forced fees. Like many who speak up against union bosses, Geary became a target for union harassment. “They laughed at me. They had their workplace reps ridicule me on the job and tell me I could file grievances that would be thrown away and said so with a big smile,” Geary recalled.
In 2009, Geary filed federal charges against union officials. The trial revealed UNAP officials were charging non-member nurses for lobbying in state legislatures. Despite the Supreme Court’s clear mandate in Beck that non-members’ money could not be used to fund political causes, union lawyers argued the lobbying was “germane” to the union’s monopoly bargaining.
Thanks to delays caused by President Obama’s illegal recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Geary had to file two petitions with the U.S.
Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., and didn’t get a final NLRB ruling for nearly a decade. Finally, in March 2019, the NLRB ruled 3-1 that union officials cannot charge non-members for lobbying of any kind. It also ruled that union officials must provide independent verification that the union expenses they force non-members to pay have been audited.
Union Bosses Ridiculously Claimed Some Union Lobbying Wasn’t Political
Union officials still wouldn’t abandon their argument that nonmembers could be forced to pay for some union lobbying as a condition of employment. Union lawyers appealed the NLRB’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. A three-judge panel that included retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter ruled unanimously in Geary’s favor, saying “we see no convincing argument that legislative lobbying is not a ‘political’ activity.”
Union officials made a last-ditch attempt to overturn the decision, requesting an en banc hearing by the entire Court of Appeals, but that request was denied. In September 2021, union bosses finally paid back, with interest, thousands of dollars taken from Geary and 99 other current and former Kent Hospital nurses who were not union members but were charged for the union’s lobbying, bringing the decade-long case to a close.
“Jeanette Geary faced workplace ridicule for her decision to stand up to union bosses, yet she persevered for eleven years,” said National Right to Work Foundation Vice President and Legal Director Raymond LaJeunesse. “In the process, she won important legal precedents that will protect thousands of other workers from having their money illegally used to fund union politics.”
