YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (February 13, 2004)<\/b> \u2014 In response to charges brought by hospital employees at Youngstown\u2019s St. Elizabeth Health Center, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) of the National Labor Relations Board ordered Teamsters Local 377 union officials to end pervasive unfair labor practices against local workers. Enjoying free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, the workers filed federal charges in 2001 against union officials for refusing to accept their resignations and for failing to properly notify them of their right to refrain from paying dues to subsidize union political activities.<\/p>\n
In issuing the ruling, the ALJ effectively granted the case \u201cclass-action\u201d status, determining that Teamsters officials had failed to inform all 900 workers in the bargaining unit of their rights. The ALJ\u2019s order entitles all such workers to receive a refund on dues collected for political and other non-collective bargaining activities, with interest. In addition, all workers who paid dues for periods when no contract was in effect are entitled to full reimbursement of those dues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis ruling is an important step that holds some union officials in Ohio to account for trampling the rights of workers,\u201d said Ray LaJeunesse, Legal Director of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cHowever, as long as Ohio workers labor under a system of compulsory unionism, this sort of abuse will inevitably continue to plague workers across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials of the Youngstown-based union refused to accept employees\u2019 written resignations from union membership and told employees that they must pay all \u201cback dues\u201d before the union would even consider their resignations. Union officials also demanded the firing of workers for refusal to pay dues, without first informing them of their right to become objecting nonmembers. Local Teamsters union officials also used payroll deductions unlawfully to collect dues for periods in which there was no valid forced unionism clause.<\/p>\n