Union officials to nurses: strike or face fines, jail, arrests
Union officials are threatening nurses in Pomona, California, with fines, arrests, and jail for refusal to walk off the job during a union ordered strike early in October. Right to Work attorneys helped a nurse challenge this coercion earlier this week at the National Labor Relations Board.
Employees that do not want to abandon their jobs during a strike can learn more here.
The arrest threats sound all too familiar.
Union Officials at Pomona Valley Hospital Illegally Threaten Non-striking Nurses with Arrest, Jail, and Fines
**Pomona, CA (October 31, 2007)** – A nurse at the Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center has filed unfair labor practice charges against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 121RN after SEIU union officials illegally threatened her and her coworkers with jail and fines. The nurses wished to resign from formal union membership, cut off union dues, and continue working during any union-ordered strike.
The charges come after the collective bargaining contract at the hospital expired and after union officials ordered a five day strike during October.
In response to the intimidation, nurse Carole Jean Badertscher filed the class action charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys. The charges detail how union officials misled and threatened employees in violation of the nurses’ rights under federal labor law. The charges also cite that union officials violated their so-called “duty of fair representation,” which is intended to prevent union discrimination against employees.
In a particularly egregious violation of the employees’ rights, a top local union official threatened that nurses who defied the union’s strike order could be subject to fines and criminal penalties, including 90 days in jail. The California law referenced by union officials is clearly pre-empted by federal labor law establishing that workers can remain at their jobs and avoid all union disciplinary fines if they first resign from formal union membership.
Union officials also distributed a flier illegally misleading the nurses, claiming that the NLRB requires employees to continue paying compulsory union dues after the expiration of a contract. The flier told nurses that, when a new contract goes into effect, union officials could require all employees to pay “back dues,” implying that they could be fired if they didn’t pay.
“Union officials are shamelessly flouting federal law in an effort to intimidate these nurses into heeding the union’s unpopular demands to turn their backs on their patients,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Unfortunately, in states like California where there is no Right to Work law prohibiting compulsory unionism, union officials face little accountability.”
The NLRB’s Regional Office will now investigate the charges and decide whether to issue a formal complaint and prosecute the union for unfair labor practices.
Right to Work Files Brief in Atlantic City Union Election Controversy
The Press of Atlantic City today wrote about the brief filed by Right to Work attorneys in the Trump Plaza union election dispute, which you can read more about here. The brief states that if the election is not set aside:
"…politicians can (and will) use the authority of their office to mislead employees that the government requires or favors a particular result in Board certification elections."
To watch video of the sham union "certification" event at issue, click here.
«Kryptonite for America’s Workers»
The AFL-CIO hierarchy has taken its latest beef with Right to Work attorneys’ victory for employees up with the International Labor Organization (ILO). About the complaint, AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney says:
"The Bush NLRB is kryptonite for America’s workers."
This is like Lex Luthor complaining that his kryptonite doesn’t work well enough. While the recent Dana victory was an encouraging step forward for employee freedom, the Bush NLRB still has lots of work left to do.
And as we see everyday, compulsory unionism abuse is the real kryptonite for America’s workers.
Hanson Trucking Driver Hits Butte-Based Teamsters Union with Federal Charges for Illegal Threats to Job
**Butte, MT (October 29, 2007)** – A Kalispell-based employee of Hanson Trucking and Resin Haulers Inc. filed federal charges against the Teamsters Local 2 union to protect himself from illegal threats to his job.
Michael Weller, a timber trucker for the resin hauling company, filed the charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with help from attorneys at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The charges cite that Teamsters Local 2 union officials are attempting to collect ongoing and back forced union dues, and have failed to provide Weller with a verified audited breakdown of union chargeable and non-chargeable expenses, as required by law.
After learning of his right to refrain from formal union membership independent of Teamsters Local 2, Weller sent letters to union officials asserting his right not to be forced to pay more than the documented cost of monopoly bargaining. In response, Teamsters union officials acknowledged Weller’s request, but calculated that the mandatory dues requirement would be reduced by only 69 cents.
Moreover, although union officials failed to provide Weller with any of the legally-mandated financial disclosures, union officials sent Weller written notice that his position would be terminated if he failed to pay the reduced fees. Under duress, Weller had no choice but to pay hundreds of dollars in forced union dues by money order, just to keep his job.
“Union officials are making an example of Michael Weller in order to stifle dissent,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “In states like Montana where there is no Right to Work law to ensure payment of union dues is strictly voluntary, union officials commonly trample the rights of employees to keep their coffers filled.”
In the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court decision Communications Workers v. Beck, the Court affirmed workers have the right to refrain from formal union membership and halt and reclaim the portion of forced union dues spent on activities unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activities. Unfortunately, they can still be forced to pay for monopoly bargaining costs, even if they do not want union “representation.” However, employees have the right to have an independent third party audit the union expenditures and verify that the percentage of dues that non-members are forced to pay does not include political spending and other non-collective bargaining expenses.
The NLRB’s Regional Office will now investigate the charges and decide whether to issue a formal complaint and prosecute the union.
Right to Work States Reap the Benefits
The National Institute for Labor Relations Research released its 2007 fact sheet that confirms those in Right to Work states benefit from faster growth and higher real purchasing power.
Among the most noteworthy, real personal income between 2001 and 2006 grew practically double in Right to Work states with 15.2% versus forced unionism states with only 8.0%. The national average was also higher than that of forced unionism states at 10.5%.
Not only that, but percentage growth in construction employment, manufacturing, privately-owned single family homes, number of the people covered by private health insurance, and the number of children covered by private health insurance all grew in Right to Work states too. In fact, Right to Work states growth repeatedly beat out the national average in all of these categories.
Check out the complete report here to see what other benefits those in Right to Work states enjoy.
Union Officials Selling Out Workers’ Pensions
Yesterday, John told us how employee John McHenry was told that to get out of the Teamsters-controlled pension plan he would have to “quit, be fired or die.”
An article in yesterday’s New York Post demonstrates why McHenry was wise to opt out of the union pension plan. In addition to being massively under-funded (only 3.2% of multi-employer union pension plans have enough assets to pay the promised benefits), it seems that NEA union officials have taken to getting kickbacks for endorsing under-performing, high-fee investment plans to teachers:
Not including management fees, the NEA’s only officially endorsed "retirement program" – the Security Benefit Life Insurance Corporation’s Valuebuilder annuity – charges 0.9 percent to 2.6 percent a year. Throw in management fees, and the least expensive option costs a teacher 1.73 percent of her account balances each year, while the most expensive costs 4.85 percent.
Over time, a fee that large is devastating. Without inflation, the educator would have to earn nearly 5 percent each year simply not to lose money. Consider a teacher who socks away $500 a month and earns an average yearly return of 10 percent for 35 years: She’d wind up with $1,788,760 upon retirement – quite a sizeable nest egg. But if she were paying 4.85 percent in fees, she’d accumulate less than one-third as much – just $587,854.
It appears that the NEA is willing to endorse a shoddy plan in exchange for a contribution to its coffers. In 2004, the union collected nearly $50 million from the investment vehicles it endorsed.
The Only Way Out of a Union Pension is to “Quit, be fired, or die”
When a company official told Perfecseal, Inc. employee John McHenry and his coworkers that the only way out of a union-controlled pension fund was to “quit, be fired, or die,” they fought back.
With help from Right to Work attorneys the employees forced Teamsters Local 14-M officials to stop requiring the pension fund contributions, though union officials stopped short of returning the pension fund money that John and others already contributed.
Like many employees, John continues to feel intimidated at his workplace. But when one company official said John’s “name was mud” and claimed that “corporate” was “pissed” at him for standing up for his legal rights, John refused to back down.
AFL-CIO Trainee Admits: Right to Work Makes Unions More Accountable to Workers
In a paper union officials will undoubtedly ignore, Michael Oswalt, a graduate of the AFL-CIO’s “Law Student Union Summer” program, observed an obvious truth: unions in Right to Work states are more accountable to their members because they have to be.
Citing AFL-CIO founder Samuel Gomper’s own opposition of forced unionism, Oswalt writes that “simple logic” shows that when forced dues are eliminated union officials must be more accountable to the concerns of individual members:
Indeed, simple logic suggests that when dues are guaranteed, attentive member servicing may not be, cultivating a frustrated and apathetic rank and file. The right-to-work environment, alternatively, stands in sharp relief. Where dues are linked to member satisfaction, leadership’s responsiveness embodies a special urgency…
In other words, if Oswalt’s former bosses at the AFL-CIO were really concerned with what is best for rank-and-file workers, they would support a National Right to Work Act.
Meet the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation
To re-introduce ourselves to readers that are well familiar with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, and to introduce ourselves to those that are not, we recently produced this video. Be sure to check back at www.nrtw.org and this blog in the months to come for additional video profiles about employees helped by the Foundation.
