\nLas Vegas, Nevada (May 13, 2009)<\/b> \u2013 With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a cab driver working for the largest taxi business in Las Vegas forced a local union\u2019s bosses to back down after they refused to allow him and his coworkers to exercise their right to refrain from formal, dues-paying union membership.\n<\/p>\n
\nLate last year, Fred Haeberle and some of his colleagues at the Nevada Yellow, Checker and Star Cab Corporations attempted to resign from formal, dues-paying union membership with the Industrial, Technical, and Professional Employees (ITPE) union \u2013 a local union of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), an AFL-CIO affiliate.\n<\/p>\n
\nITPE union bosses maliciously refused Haeberle\u2019s request \u2013 saying he had \u201cno standing\u201d to assert his rights. Haeberle then turned to the National Right to Work Foundation for free legal aid.\n<\/p>\n
\nIn the Foundation-assisted Pattern Makers v. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) United States Supreme Court case, the Court held that employees have the right to resign from union membership at any time. And Nevada\u2019s Right to Work law prohibits union officials from compelling employees to join or pay dues to a union.\n<\/p>\n
\nAfter Foundation attorneys filed a federal charge with the NLRB for Haeberle (and others similarly situated), the ITPE union acknowledged that Haeberle\u2019s request indeed had standing, but still wrongly claimed that he had to wait until a designated \u201cwindow period\u201d of time in order to resign from union membership.\n<\/p>\n
\nOnly when the NLRB Regional Office seemed poised to prosecute the violations did ITPE union officials back away from this illegal \u201cwindow period\u201d policy. The threat of prosecution forced ITPE union officials to admit Haeberle\u2019s original union membership resignation letter was indeed effective, and they agreed to settle. ITPE union bosses must also now post a notice stating that they will no longer deny workers of their right to refrain from union membership or use \u201cwindow periods\u201d to prevent workers from exercising their right to resign from formal union membership.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cUnion bosses are interested in one thing, and one thing only: money,\u201d said Stefan Gleason, vice president of National Right to Work. \u201cWorkers should not have to get an attorney, nor face ugly union intimidation and stonewalling tactics, when they try to exercise their legal rights under Nevada\u2019s popular Right to Work law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nLas Vegas, Nevada (May 13, 2009)<\/b> \u2013 With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a cab driver working for the largest taxi business in Las Vegas forced a local union\u2019s bosses to back down after they refused to allow him and his coworkers to exercise their right to refrain from formal, dues-paying union membership.\n<\/p>\n
\nLate last year, Fred Haeberle and some of his colleagues at the Nevada Yellow, Checker and Star Cab Corporations attempted to resign from formal, dues-paying union membership with the Industrial, Technical, and Professional Employees (ITPE) union \u2013 a local union of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), an AFL-CIO affiliate.\n<\/p>\n
\nITPE union bosses maliciously refused Haeberle\u2019s request \u2013 saying he had \u201cno standing\u201d to assert his rights. Haeberle then turned to the National Right to Work Foundation for free legal aid.<\/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-2808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n