**Tampa, FL (September 11, 2006)** \u2013 With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, five nonunion security officers employed at the Tampa Federal Courthouse won a lawsuit in state court this week against security union officials who illegally threatened to have them fired for refusing to join or financially support the union.<\/p>\n
The ruling slows a statewide scheme by union officials to force employees at federal buildings into union ranks against their will.<\/p>\n
Fred Bohlig and four coworkers filed the suit in the Circuit Court of Florida\u2019s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit in November 2003 against the union after United Government Security Officers of America (UGSOA) union Local 132 officials attempted to circumvent Florida\u2019s Right to Work law. The highly popular law protects employees from being forced to join or pay dues to an unwanted union.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis victory is an incremental yet important step towards protecting employee freedom in the Sunshine State,\u201d said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cWith these bully tactics, it\u2019s obvious that the union hierarchy is more concerned with milking workers for forced union dues than supposedly \u2018representing\u2019 them.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of an effort to pressure nonunion workers into paying dues, UGSOA union officials posted a notice at the Tampa Federal Courthouse in October 2003 threatening that all security officers would lose their jobs unless they agreed either to join the union or pay dues.<\/p>\n
The notice falsely claimed the security officers worked on federal property and are not protected by Florida\u2019s Right to Work law \u2013 and thus could be forced to pay union fees as a condition of employment. Although it is true workers employed at some federal installations cannot be protected by a state Right to Work law, the court agreed with Foundation attorneys that the Tampa Federal Courthouse does not qualify as such a location.<\/p>\n
The unlawful threats are part of an emerging trend under which union officials seek to bypass Right to Work laws \u2013 an unfortunate growing pattern the Foundation is battling both in Florida and nationwide. In another recent Foundation case in Florida, four nonunion employees at a federal detention facility in Miami recently hit the Teamsters Local 769 union with a similar lawsuit for illegally ordering them to pay union dues or face termination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
**Tampa, FL (September 11, 2006)** \u2013 With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, five nonunion security officers employed at the Tampa Federal Courthouse won a lawsuit in state court this week against security union officials who illegally threatened to have them fired for refusing to join or financially support the union. […]<\/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-2284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n