**Los Angeles, CA (June 5, 2006)** \u2013 Responding to federal charges filed by over 60 employees of Albertsons and Ralphs grocery chains who faced retaliatory fines for refusal to engage in \u201csympathy strike\u201d activities during the California grocery strike in 2003, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ordered the Teamsters union to allow the workers to rescind and void the unlawful fines. <\/p>\n
Agreeing with arguments presented by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, an NLRB administrative law judge in Los Angeles handed down the ruling late last week that also mandated union officials must allow several hundreds \u2013 perhaps even thousands \u2013 of workers in eight different bargaining units to retroactively revoke their formal union membership and receive certain back-dues rebates.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the grocery strike, Teamsters Local 952 union officials socked employees with confiscatory fines \u2013 ranging up to $7,400 per employee \u2013 simply for observing the union\u2019s own \u201cno strike\u201d contract with their employers. The targeted employees had continued to report to work during the crippling statewide grocery strike ordered against Albertsons, Vons, and Ralphs by United Food and Commercial Workers union officials.<\/p>\n
With free legal assistance from the Foundation, Juan Saldana and dozens of other Albertsons and Ralphs distribution center employees filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB after Teamsters officials issued the illegal retaliatory fines.<\/p>\n
The judge ruled that Teamsters Local 952 officials illegally failed to inform workers of their rights to refrain from formal union membership and to object to paying for the union\u2019s nonrepresentational activities, such as politics. Because the employees thus cannot be considered voluntary members, the judge ruled that internal union disciplinary measures could not be taken against them. The ruling also overturned Teamsters officials\u2019 illegal policy of forcing workers to annually renew their objections to financially supporting the union\u2019s political activities. The judge also struck down a restrictive union policy that required objections to be filed individually.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough a significant victory for these workers, this case underscores that state law should not force any worker to pay dues to an unwanted union in the first place,\u201d said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cWithout a Right to Work law to mandate that union membership is strictly voluntary, such abuses will inevitably continue to plague California workers.\u201d<\/p>\n