Minneapolis, MN (October 30, 2014) – Today, a group of home-based personal care providers challenging a state law that authorizes the forcible unionization of Minnesota’s 27,000 care providers have asked a federal appeals court to overrule a lower court’s ruling issued last week in their case.

With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Teri Bierman and eight other providers from around the state appealed the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota judge’s ruling denying the providers’ request for a court injunction that would immediately halt implementation of the law.

The appeal is the latest development in a federal lawsuit filed by the nine providers challenging a state law intended to designate the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as the monopoly political representative of thousands of providers in the state.

The homecare providers provide homecare services to their sons and daughters who receive state assistance to help pay for their care. For example, two of the homecare providers, Teri Bierman and Scott Price, both provide care to their daughters with cerebral palsy. The suit challenges the forced-unionism scheme on the grounds that it violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of free political expression and association.

On August 27, the SEIU won a majority of votes in a controversial write-in unionization election for Minnesota caregivers. Although nearly 27,000 care providers were eligible to vote under the new law, only 13 percent of the total number of eligible voters approved SEIU affiliation. Consequently, SEIU officials are now empowered to deal with the State for all 27,000 Minnesota homecare providers. Caregivers who didn’t vote or voted against the union are forced to accept the SEIU’s «representation.»

«Forcing folks who care for their relatives into forced union representation is a slap in the face of fundamental American principles we hold dear,» said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. «The appeals court should halt implementation of Governor Mark Dayton’s political payback to SEIU bosses and protect providers’ right to remain free from unwanted union affiliation.»

Oakdale, CA (November 7, 2014) – A Modesto-area Sconza Candy Company employee has filed federal charges against a local bakers union and her employer for a litany of rights violations.

With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Sconza employee Athena Manning filed the unfair labor practice charges Wednesday with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Manning charges that Sconza management and Bakers Union Local 125 officials failed to notify her of her rights to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership. In May, company and union officials also actively misled her about her obligations to the union, claiming that joining the union and paying full dues were required as a condition of employment.

Because California does not have Right to Work protections for workers, workers can be required to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. However, workers also have the right to refrain from formal union membership and paying for union boss politics and many other activities. Under federal labor case law, union officials must also provide workers with an independently-audited financial breakdown of all forced-dues union expenditures.

Even though union officials never provided Manning with information about her rights, she was nonetheless suspended without pay from her job in June for failing to join and pay dues to the union.

In September, Local 125 union officials gave Manning a breakdown of union expenditures that failed to comply with federal disclosure requirements.

«Union and company officials actively misled and then punished this worker for exercising her rights, all in order to collect more forced dues cash for the union bosses’ coffers,» said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. «Independent-minded workers will continue to face similar schemes until California passes a Right to Work law, which would ensure that union membership and dues payment are completely voluntary.»

Fort Leonard Wood, MO (November 7, 2014) – A local government union and an Overland Park, Kansas-based food services company are facing a federal prosecution for violating Fort Leonard Wood food service workers’ rights.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) prosecution comes in the wake of federal charges filed by two workers with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

Because Missouri does not have Right to Work protections for workers, workers can be required to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. However, under Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court precedent, nonmember workers can refrain from paying for union boss politics and many other activities.

Kimsha Rosensteel, an 11-year employee with food services provider EDP Enterprises, Inc, was president of the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE) Local R14-139 union for about one and a half years. While she was union president, Rosensteel discovered that the union was failing to follow federal disclosure requirements designed to better inform workers about their rights to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership.

In response, the union hierarchy removed Rosensteel from her post and tried to pressure her into accepting a deal that allowed her to refrain from paying union dues and fees in order to keep her quiet about the union’s activities. However, after several other EDP Enterprises workers also requested that they be able to refrain from paying all union dues or fees, EDP management demanded the union resume taking full union dues from Rosensteel’s paychecks.

Another worker, Stephanie Fenton also filed federal charges after NAGE union officials stonewalled several workers’ requests to refrain from formal, dues-paying union membership and refused to follow federal disclosure requirements designed to better inform workers of their rights.

«It is unconscionable that NAGE union bosses are actively obstructing workers from exercising their statutory rights and then work with company management to cover it up,» said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. «This case underscores the need for Missouri to pass Right to Work protections for its workers.»

The NLRB scheduled a hearing on the case for January 12, 2015.

Twenty-four states have Right to Work protections for workers. Recent public polling shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans and union members support the Right to Work principle of voluntary unionism.

Burlington, WA (November 12, 2014) – A local Fred Meyer grocery store worker has filed a federal charge against the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 21 union for refusing to follow federal disclosure requirements and confiscating more than the legally-permitted amount of forced union fees from her paychecks.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Deborah Kohut of Mount Vernon filed the federal unfair labor practice charge Monday with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Because Washington does not have Right to Work protections for workers, workers can be required to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. However, under Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court precedent, nonmember workers can refrain from paying for politics and many other union activities.

Under federal labor case law, union officials must also provide workers with an independently-audited financial breakdown of all forced-dues union expenditures. This procedural safeguard helps inform workers of how their forced union dues are being spent and makes it less difficult for workers to hold union officials accountable.

Because UFCW union officials failed to provide a breakdown of expenditures that complied with federal disclosure requirements, Kohut, who was recently hired at a Fred Meyer store in Burlington, refused to sign a union dues deduction authorization – a document used by union officials to automatically collect dues from workers’ paychecks. In response, UFCW union officials have levied an additional fee on top of Kohut’s forced dues payments.

UFCW union officials also threatened her with job termination to force her to pay the full union member initiation fee, even though nonmember workers can pay a reduced initiation fee.

«UFCW union officials are retaliating against this worker for simply exercising her right to refrain from full union dues payments,» said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. «This case underscores the need for Washington to pass Right to Work protections for its workers.»

Twenty-four states have Right to Work protections for workers. Recent public polling shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans and union members support the Right to Work principle of voluntary unionism.

Lake Buena Vista, FL (November 17, 2014) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a Walt Disney Company driver has filed a federal charge against a local Teamsters union.

Winter Garden resident Anthony Pirrelli filed the unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Teamsters Local 385 for ignoring his right to refrain from paying union dues. Under Florida’s popular Right to Work law, no worker can be required to join or pay fees to a union as a condition of employment.

In August, Pirrelli attempted to resign union membership and revoke his union dues deduction authorization – a document used by union officials to automatically collect dues from workers’ paychecks. Despite Pirrelli’s efforts, Teamsters Local 385 union officials have refused to stop collecting union dues from his paychecks or provide him a copy of his union dues deduction authorization.

Two other Walt Disney workers earlier filed federal charges against Teamsters Local 385 for ignoring their right to refrain from union membership and union dues payments.

«Teamster union bosses are refusing to honor workers’ legally-protected right to cut off union dues,» said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. «Much to Teamsters union bosses’ chagrin, federal and state statutory protections for workers still apply in the so-called Magic Kingdom.»

The charge will be investigated by the NLRB regional office in Tampa.

Washington, DC (November 17, 2014) – Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, is urging U.S. Labor Department Secretary Thomas Perez to apply federal labor disclosure law to German union and Volkswagen (VW) officials involved in an international push to unionize workers at VW’s Chattanooga, Tennessee facility.

The Foundation – the nation’s premier advocate on behalf of workers who suffer from the abuses of compulsory unionism – assisted several workers who were subjected to coercive card check unionization tactics and pressure from VW management during the United Auto Workers (UAW) union’s multi-year campaign to unionize the workers. The Foundation also assisted some of those workers in filing a federal suit that challenged the company’s assistance to UAW union officials during the unionization campaign as an illegal exchange of «thing[s] of value» under the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA).

In a letter to Perez, Mix spells out how officials from the German-based IG Metall union, VW’s Global Group Works Council (GWC), the UAW union, and VW Germany have participated in «high-profile public activities…that trigger Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) reporting requirements.» Mix notes that the U.S. Department of Labor has thus far ignored this fact, and if it continues to do so, union and company officials «may receive de facto immunity for their possible violations of the LMRDA’s criminal and civil protections.»

The LMRDA requires union officials to make comprehensive and detailed disclosure of union financial data, prohibits persons convicted of serious crimes from serving as union officers, forces full reporting by union officers of any personal conflict-of-interest transactions, and prohibits the channeling of bribes and improper influence through middlemen.

«As it stands now, American employees of Volkswagen do not know what inside arrangements exist among UAW, IG Metall, Global Works Council, and VW,» Mix states in the letter to Perez. «I call on you to immediately use your authorized powers to demand [disclosure reports] from IG Metall and the Global Works Council.»

New York Childcare Providers File Federal Lawsuit Challenging Forced Unionization Scheme

Childcare providers fight dictate to push childcare business owners into forced dues union ranks

Syracuse, NY (December 2, 2014) – A group of New York home-based childcare providers have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a 2007 executive order that greased the skids for the forced unionization of the state’s home-based childcare providers. The providers seek a refund of illegally-seized union dues.

Mary Jarvis and nine other providers filed the suit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.

Jarvis and the other providers challenge AFSCME-affiliated Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) union officials’ monopoly political representation over thousands of providers in the state outside New York City who operate home-based childcare businesses.

Click here to read the full release.

SEIU Officials, Santa Clara County Face Class-Action Lawsuit for Violating Employees’ Rights

Relying on landmark Knox Supreme Court decision, county employees seek to end automatic dues deduction for union politics

San Jose, CA (December 3, 2014) – Two Santa Clara Valley Medical Center employees have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against a local union and the county that seeks to expand public employees’ right to refrain from paying union dues used for union politics.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation-provided staff attorneys, San Jose-area county employees Jeffrey Lum and Andrew Li filed the lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s San Jose Division.

Lum and Li are not formal union members in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521. Because California does not have a Right to Work law, workers can be required to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. However, nonmember workers have the right to refrain from paying for union boss politics and many other activities not related to bargaining with their employer.

Although Lum and Li are not union members, SEIU and county officials continue to deduct an amount equal to full union dues from their paychecks as if they were.

Click here to read the full release.

Worker Advocate Blasts Obama Labor Board Rule Change

New regulations would allow union bosses to ambush workers into forced-dues-paying union ranks

Washington, DC (December 12, 2014) – Today, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) again issued new regulations that give union organizers the upper hand over independent-minded employees during unionization elections.

The new rules are designed to dramatically shorten the time individual workers have to share information with their coworkers about the effects of unionization. The new regulations also require employers to hand over workers’ private information to union organizers, including their phone numbers and email addresses.

This isn’t the first time the NLRB rushed out the new rules in December before a Member’s term expired, this time as former union lawyer Nancy Schiffer’s term expires on Tuesday, December 16. The NLRB previously rushed the regulations out before former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) lawyer and Obama NLRB recess appointee Craig Becker’s term expired in December 2011. They were later invalidated by a federal district court in 2012 on procedural grounds.

Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation released the following statement in the wake of the NLRB’s announcement:

«Christmas came early for Big Labor as the Obama Labor Board has once again given union bosses increased power to ambush workers into dues-paying union ranks.»

Click here to read the full release.

Indiana Supreme Court Strikes Down Third Union Boss Challenge to State Right to Work Law

Hoosier workers contested spurious union challenge

Indianapolis, IN (December 17, 2014) – The Indiana Supreme Court today once again rejected a union boss-backed challenge to Indiana’s 2012 Right to Work law. The case is a lawsuit filed by the United Steelworker (USW) union that makes a number of dubious claims in its challenge to the law, including the argument that unions have a right to force workers to pay for their unwanted services.

The Indiana Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling. Early last month, the court also upheld the law as constitutional in a different case involving the same issues. And a broader challenge was rejected in September by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Click here to read the full release.