In months following repeal of Michigan Right to Work law, workers across the state are standing up to oppose union coercion

Grand Rapids, MI (July 30, 2024) – Richard Howard, an employee at General Electric (GE) Aviation Systems’ Grand Rapids facility, has slammed his employer and United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 330 union officials with two sets of federal charges. He maintains that union officials illegally instigated his termination after he refused to become a formal union member.

Howard’s charges come as Michigan workers increasingly seek to challenge union bosses’ legal powers in the wake of Michigan’s repeal of its Right to Work law. The repeal, which became effective this February, re-granted union officials the privilege to demand workers pay union dues or fees just to keep a job. So far this year, Foundation staff attorneys have already filed more than twice as many cases to defend Michigan workers’ rights than through all of 2023.

Howard filed his federal Unfair Labor Practice charges at Region 7 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Detroit with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Because Howard’s reasons for wanting to dissociate from the union stemmed from his Christian beliefs, something he had made clear when objecting to demands that he sign a union card, he also filed anti-discrimination charges against the UAW and GE with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Howard’s charges state that, after the Right to Work repeal became effective, both GE and UAW agents told Howard and his colleagues that “they had 60 days to become Union members, sign dues checkoffs, and pay full dues to the Union.” Howard knew that union membership couldn’t be compulsory even in a non-Right to Work environment, but many conversations he had with officials of the union and GE about other options proved fruitless.

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 under cases like General Motors v. NLRB prevents union bosses from requiring workers to become formal union members. 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 who refrain from union membership to pay money for any activities beyond the union’s bargaining functions, such as political expenditures.

For religious objectors to union activity, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires union officials to attempt to accommodate such workers. While Title VII accommodations take different forms from case to case, they generally eliminate any obligation the worker has to pay dues money directly to the union. One common accommodation is permitting a worker to pay an amount equivalent to dues or fees to a charity.

“I have repeatedly voiced my objections to the UAW and everything they stand for, including my religious objections to the union’s political activity. My rights may be limited due to the repeal of Michigan’s Right to Work law, but the union has acted like they don’t exist at all,” Howard said. “It is shameful that rather than respect my religious freedom and other workplace rights, the union instigated my firing.”

GE, UAW Wrongly Told Worker Membership Was Required

Howard’s charges describe how union and company officials stonewalled him when he asked about what options he had to opt out of the union: “Everyone he spoke to in both the Employer’s management and the Union told him that he was required to sign the union membership and dues deduction authorization card or he would be terminated and that he had no other options.” Even offers by Howard to pay a reduced amount of union dues as a nonmember (as per Beck) or pay money to a charity as a religious objector were rebuffed.

Finally, during an April meeting Howard had with GE and UAW agents, both parties threatened that he would be fired if he did not sign a union membership form and dues deduction authorization form within six days. Six days after the meeting, GE terminated Howard, and UAW union officials refused to file a grievance for him challenging the termination.

Worker Seeks Federal Injunction After Unlawful Union-Instigated Firing

Howard’s NLRB charges argue that the employer’s and union’s threats to fire him and the firing itself violated his right under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to refrain from union activity. The charges also contend that UAW officials never informed him in writing of exactly what his obligations were before demanding his firing, a violation of the NLRB’s Philadelphia Sheraton Corp. precedent. The NLRB charges finally request that the NLRB seek a federal court order telling GE and UAW to immediately cease the illegal activity, something known as a “10(j) injunction”.

Howard’s EEOC charges state that both UAW and GE officials have failed to accommodate him or even consider his religious objection (as required by Title VII) and have ignored or shot down every attempt by him to seek an accommodation.

“The flurry of new cases that Foundation staff attorneys are litigating for Michigan workers shows that, post-Right to Work repeal, union bosses aren’t stopping at re-imposing their forced-dues legal power on workers. They seem to view the repeal as a license to force workers to associate with them in any way possible,” stated National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “As these recent cases demonstrate, Michigan workers deserve more freedom from union boss coercion – not less – and Michigan workers aren’t going to let their freedoms go without a fight.

“Workers may have any number of reasons for wanting to withhold their money from a union – religious reasons, financial reasons, or just because they believe union officials aren’t doing a good job,” Mix added. “That’s why the voluntarism of Right to Work is so important, and why every American worker deserves such protections.”