**Buckhannon, WV (January 17, 2007)** \u2013 Esther Gearhart, a ResCare, Inc. assisted living employee filed federal labor board charges against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199 and ResCare for their attempts to force unwanted unionization on health care employees all across West Virginia.<\/p>\n
Gearhart filed the charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 6 offices in Pittsburgh, PA, with assistance from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys. The unfair labor practice charges ask for an injunction to block the union and ResCare from continuing their unlawful activities, and they detail multiple violations of the National Labor Relations Act by SEIU officials and ResCare.<\/p>\n
Gearhart\u2019s charge is the second such charge filed by ResCare employees with help from Foundation attorneys in recent weeks. In late December, Foundation attorneys helped employees in the Princeton area file charges to block similar unlawful union organizing activities. Employee reports also signal similar activities occurring across the state border in Ohio.
\nAs part of an agreement kept secret from employees, ResCare executives agreed to abandon even the limited protections offered to employees under an NLRB-supervised secret ballot election in choosing whether to unionize. Instead the agreement imposed a coercive \u201ccard check\u201d procedure, in which union organizers can browbeat employees individually to sign cards that are then counted as \u201cvotes\u201d for unionization.<\/p>\n
Because of the prevalence of union intimidation tactics directed at employees, card check is controversial for severely curtailing workers\u2019 freedom of choice in deciding whether or not to unionize. <\/p>\n
The \u201ccard check\u201d procedure used at ResCare is part of a larger misnamed \u201cneutrality agreement\u201d designed to have the employer assist union organizers in pushing workers into the union\u2019s ranks. Under such agreements, the company commonly must give union officials unfettered access to workers on company property and the home addresses and phone numbers of employees, resulting in home visits from groups of union organizers. Such agreements also often contain a \u201cgag rule\u201d preventing employers from discussing any potential impact of unionization on employees.<\/p>\n
In exchange for agreeing to assist the union with the card check scheme, ResCare executives received concessions from SEIU officials, including an agreed upon contract to be foisted upon the employees once the unionization is complete. Such \u201cpre-recognition bargaining\u201d clearly violates federal law, yet the SEIU and ResCare are now rolling out this scheme all over West Virginia, and possibly Ohio as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnion officials sold out the interests of the very workers they sought to \u2018represent\u2019 in order to force unionization and compulsory dues upon them,\u201d said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cUnion organizers\u2019 illegal behavior shows that they don\u2019t respect the rights of the workers; it\u2019s all about the money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
**Buckhannon, WV (January 17, 2007)** \u2013 Esther Gearhart, a ResCare, Inc. assisted living employee filed federal labor board charges against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199 and ResCare for their attempts to force unwanted unionization on health care employees all across West Virginia. Gearhart filed the charges at the National Labor Relations Board […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n