Breakthru Beverage Workers Across Florida Seek Vote to Oust Teamsters Union
Drivers in work unit spanning six cities sign petition asking federal labor board to hold union removal vote
Florida (November 6, 2025) – Across Florida, drivers for beverage distributor Breakthru Beverages are supporting a petition that asks the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a vote to remove Teamsters union officials from several distribution facilities. Breakthru driver Tim Zulinki submitted the petition to the NLRB with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law, a task that includes administering votes to install (or “certify”) and remove (or “decertify”) unions in workplaces. Zulinki obtained signatures on his decertification petition well exceeding the necessary threshold to trigger a secret ballot election. Breakthru employs drivers at distribution centers in Jacksonville, Midway, Pensacola, Orlando, Fort Myers, and Tampa.
Florida is a Right to Work state, meaning Teamsters union officials cannot demand that Breakthru drivers pay union dues as a condition of getting or keeping a job. In states that lack Right to Work protections, union officials can have workers fired for refusal to pay dues or fees to a union. Though forced dues are prohibited in Florida and other Right to Work states, union officials can still impose their exclusive “representation” powers on every worker in a workplace, including those who oppose the union or voted against it.
Now the NLRB will examine the petition and should schedule an election quickly. If Zulinki and a majority of those participating in the decertification election vote against the Teamsters, hundreds of Breakthru drivers across the Sunshine State will be free from Teamsters union officials’ exclusive representation power.
Drivers Back Union Removal Effort After Months-Long Strike Ordered by Teamsters Bosses
In June, Teamsters union bosses ordered Breakthru drivers on strike. The strike order ended at the close of October, as union officials announced that they and Breakthru management had finalized a new contract. Zulinki submitted his decertification petition just before the contract became effective – which is crucial timing considering the NLRB’s non-statutory “contract bar” policy normally blocks workers from filing decertification petitions for up to three years after a contract is approved. The contract bar appears nowhere in the text of federal labor law, but is the invention of union boss-friendly NLRB decisions.
Teamsters union officials have a track record of supporting agendas that are opposed by the workers they claim to represent. During the 2024 election cycle, the union’s upper echelon chose not to endorse Donald Trump because he would not commit to eliminating Right to Work and granting forced dues power to union bosses nationwide. Nearly 80% of American union members back Right to Work.
National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys have also seen a marked rise in requests from workers seeking legal assistance in Teamsters decertification cases.
“Sean O’Brien & Co.’s propaganda about the Teamsters union’s supposed ‘victory’ across Florida after the Breakthru strike is being contradicted by rank-and-file workers in real time,” observed National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Mr. Zulinki and his coworkers want freedom from the Teamsters hierarchy, which is increasingly proving to be radical and out-of-touch with what workers want.
“While Florida provides important protections for independent-minded workers through its Right to Work law, ultimately no worker should be subject to union monopoly bargaining control they disagree with,” Mix added.
Disney Worker Hits UNITE HERE Union with Federal Charge for Illegal Dues Seizures
The following article is from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation’s bi-monthly Foundation Action Newsletter, May/June 2023 edition. To view other editions of Foundation Action or to sign up for a free subscription, click here.
Union officials ignoring worker’s right under Florida Right to Work law to stop dues payments
Not so magical: Lurking behind Disney World’s cheery exterior are UNITE HERE union officials who apparently don’t respect employees who exercise their right to free themselves from unwanted union membership and dues deductions.
ORLANDO, FL – With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Disney Parks and Resorts employee in Orlando, Florida, has filed federal charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the UNITE HERE Local 362 union, stating that union officials ignored his resignation and dues checkoff revocation letter.
Since 1943, Florida’s Right to Work protections have made union membership and financial support strictly voluntary. However, when Jose Class filed his unfair labor practice charge, UNITE HERE union officials had not acknowledged his unequivocal exercise of his rights to abstain from both.
According to the charge filed in December 2022, Class resigned his union membership and revoked the union’s authorization to deduct dues from his paycheck. That December letter also requested, if union officials did not immediately accept his dues checkoff revocation, that the union, within 14 days of receipt, provide him with a copy of any checkoff he may have signed.
As of the filing of the charge, union officials had not stopped collecting dues from his wages, nor had they provided him with the requested copy of a signed checkoff authorization, which might specify when revocation is allowed.
Long History of Union Bosses Violating Disney World Workers’ Rights
UNITE HERE is not the only union that has violated Disney World workers’ right to stop all dues payments as guaranteed by Florida’s longstanding Right to Work law. In a series of cases brought against Florida-based Teamsters Local 385, Foundation attorneys ultimately won an NLRB decision that Teamsters officials violated workers’ rights by “repeatedly and deliberately” failing to honor the workers’ requests that deduction of union dues from their wages stop.
“In what is an unfortunately familiar story, union officials ignored Mr. Class’ resignation letter and his dues deduction revocation,” commented National Right to Work Foundation Vice President and Legal Director Raymond LaJeunesse.
“No American worker should ever be forced to subsidize union activities, which is why a longstanding priority of the National Right to Work Foundation is assisting workers in exercising their right to cut off financial support for union officials they oppose.
Orlando Airport Fueling Employees Successfully Oust USWU Union Officials Who Tried to Stop Union Decertification Vote
USWU outrageously claimed that vote among approximately 1,000 PrimeFlight employees across country was necessary to boot union just at Orlando Airport
Orlando, FL (May 2, 2023) – Robert Anderson and his fellow PrimeFlight Aviation Services fueling employees at Orlando International Airport have successfully ousted United Service Workers Union (USWU) Local 74 union officials from their workplace. Anderson and his colleagues received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation in removing the unwanted union.
Anderson and his coworkers submitted a majority-backed petition to the National Mediation Board (NMB) in March 2023. The petition contained enough employee support to prompt the agency to conduct a union “decertification” investigation at his facility. However, union officials objected to letting the employees vote, outrageously claiming that Anderson and his coworkers were actually part of a nationwide “system” and the union decertification election would need to be conducted among almost every PrimeFlight employee in the country – even though Anderson and his colleagues simply wanted to dismiss the union from their Orlando workplace alone.
Foundation Attorneys Expose Outrageous Union Scheme to Stop Vote
Foundation attorneys refuted union arguments in a position statement, contending that the union’s position was completely at odds with the Railway Labor Act’s (RLA) basic purposes, which ensure that “employees can [choose] to join or refrain from unionization, and that they are entitled to the fullest freedom in making that choice.” The RLA governs private sector labor relations in the air and rail industries.
“The [union] reasoning is both illogical and devastating to employee free choice,” said Foundation attorneys’ statement. “Local 74 would require some 1,000 PrimeFlight fuelers, at all locations, to weigh-in on whether the employees at one specific location in Orlando should be represented by Local 74, even though those other employees cannot possibly have any…interest in the representational choices of the Orlando location’s employees.”
Further, Foundation attorneys pointed out that USWU union officials’ position was especially suspect considering “the fuelers at other locations are represented by unions other than Local 74” (emphasis added) and have completely different contracts and working conditions. Had the USWU officials’ position been adopted, in order to eject a union for workers at one location, the workers would need signatures from hundreds or potentially thousands of workers at other locations. That could include not only workers covered by different unions with entirely different monopoly bargaining contracts, but also nonunion workers at other facilities who are already free to negotiate their own terms of employment.
USWU Officials Back Down, Abandon Orlando Airport
After Foundation attorneys countered the union’s contentions, USWU union officials quickly backed down and disclaimed interest in maintaining power over Anderson and his coworkers. Likely wanting to avoid a vote of the rank-and-file fueling employees who petitioned for the decertification vote, union officials issued a letter on April 21, 2023, declaring that the union “abandons its representative status and disclaims interest in the aforementioned employees.”
The NMB closed the case on April 26, 2023, meaning Anderson and his fellow fuelers are officially free of the union.
Foundation attorneys have continuously sought to safeguard workers’ right to decertify unwanted unions at the NMB. In 2020, the Foundation filed a brief at the agency opposing the AFL-CIO’s effort to bring back the arbitrary “straw man” rule, which required workers interested in decertifying a union to solicit support for a fake “straw man” union just to vote out incumbent union officials.
“USWU union officials’ ridiculous proposal of a nationwide decertification vote disrespects the rights of rank-and-file employees to vote out union bosses they oppose,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “We applaud Mr. Anderson and his fellow airplane fuelers for exercising their rights even in the face of such opposition from USWU union officials, but there are likely many other employees across the country whose efforts to oust an unpopular union have been stifled by such legal maneuvering. National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys stand ready to aid employees who experience similar barriers to their rights.”
