Hudson, OH (May 27, 2010) \u2013 With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation, Janet Barlow and two of her First Student coworkers have forced Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) Local 791 union officials to settle unfair labor practice charges. The agreement, which was originally proposed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), requires union officials to post notices informing First Student employees of their workplace rights and to allow nonunion workers to opt out of all union dues.<\/p>\n
Because Ohio lacks a Right to Work law, employees throughout the state can be forced to pay certain union dues as a condition of employment. After OAPSE officials obstructed Barlow\u2019s attempt to assert her constitutional right not to pay union dues for politics, however, Barlow initiated a so-called deauthorization drive to strip union officials of their powers to collect mandatory dues from First Student employees. <\/p>\n
In February 2010, Barlow and her coworkers voted overwhelmingly to reject the forced-dues clause in OAPSE\u2019s contract, allowing workers to opt-out of union dues at any time. Despite this result, OAPSE officials refused to allow nonunion workers to revoke their dues authorization forms, claiming that the employees\u2019 actions were \u201cuntimely.\u201d <\/p>\n
First Student employees Jack Hurst and Dennis McConnaughey responded by filing additional unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB. Instead of contesting these charges, OAPSE officials agreed to a settlement brokered by the NLRB that requires union officials to allow any employee to stop paying union dues and revoke their dues authorization forms. The settlement also requires the union to post public notices informing First Student employees of their workplace rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cRevoking a union\u2019s forced-dues privileges is an uphill battle to begin with, but even after they lost the election, scofflaw OAPSE bosses refused to acknowledge workers\u2019 rights to stop paying union dues,\u201d said Patrick Semmens, legal information director for the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cEmployees shouldn\u2019t have to jump through this many legal hoops just to protect their hard-earned paychecks, which is why Ohio should make union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary by adopting a Right to Work law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hudson, OH (May 27, 2010) \u2013 With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation, Janet Barlow and two of her First Student coworkers have forced Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) Local 791 union officials to settle unfair labor practice charges. The agreement, which was originally proposed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), requires union officials to post notices informing First Student employees of their workplace rights and to allow nonunion workers to opt out of all union dues.<\/p>\n
Because Ohio lacks a Right to Work law, employees throughout the state can be forced to pay certain union dues as a condition of employment. After OAPSE officials obstructed Barlow\u2019s attempt to assert her constitutional right not to pay union dues for politics, however, Barlow initiated a so-called deauthorization drive to strip union officials of their powers to collect mandatory dues from First Student employees. <\/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-2883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n