**Washington, DC (June 27, 2006)** \u2014 With free legal help from the National Right to Work Foundation, a WTTG-TV (Fox 5) producer filed federal charges against the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) union after its officials threatened to have her fired for refusal to support the union. The union brass violated the producer\u2019s rights by making these threats while failing to inform her and her coworkers of their right to refrain from formal union membership and payment of certain dues.<\/p>\n
The Fox 5 production employee filed the class-action charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after AFTRA officials failed to provide her and her coworkers with a legally-mandated audit of the union\u2019s expenditures, demanded that they pay union initiation fees, and insisted that she sign a dues \u201ccheck off\u201d card authorizing the automatic deduction of forced dues from her paycheck.<\/p>\n
However, union officials unlawfully failed first to notify the employees of their right to refrain from formal union membership and withhold forced dues spent on activities unrelated to collective bargaining, such as union political activities.<\/p>\n
After she refused to pay, the union hierarchy \u2013 by letter dated April 17, 2006 \u2013 unlawfully threatened her that \u201cwithout tender of initiation and dues, you may not be employed in AFTRA\u2019s jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnion officials are unlawfully retaliating against employees for refusing to toe the union line,\u201d said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cThese heavy-handed tactics demonstrate how far union officials will go to keep a steady stream of forced union dues flowing into union coffers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under numerous U.S. Supreme Court precedents, including Patternmakers v. NLRB, workers have the right to resign their formal union memberships at any time. <\/p>\n
AFTRA union officials\u2019 actions also violated employees\u2019 rights affirmed in the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court decision Communications Workers v. Beck. Under Beck, union officials may not compel workers to pay forced union dues for costs unrelated to collective bargaining, and must specifically inform employees of their right to refrain from full dues-paying union membership before seizing any forced union dues from their paychecks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
**Washington, DC (June 27, 2006)** \u2014 With free legal help from the National Right to Work Foundation, a WTTG-TV (Fox 5) producer filed federal charges against the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) union after its officials threatened to have her fired for refusal to support the union. The union brass violated the producer\u2019s rights by making these threats while failing to inform her and her coworkers of their right to refrain from formal union membership and payment of certain dues.<\/p>\n
The Fox 5 production employee filed the class-action charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after AFTRA officials failed to provide her and her coworkers with a legally-mandated audit of the union\u2019s expenditures, demanded that they pay union initiation fees, and insisted that she sign a dues \u201ccheck off\u201d card authorizing the automatic deduction of forced dues from her paycheck.<\/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-2302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n