Boca Raton, FL (September 16, 2010) \u2013 With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Mardi Gras Gaming employee has won the right to proceed with a lawsuit aimed at halting a backroom deal in which his employer pledged to assist union organizers and agreed to a coercive card check organizing drive. The United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit overruled a prior District Court decision that held Martin Mulhall lacked standing to sue the Unite Here Local 355 union and Mardi Gras Gaming.<\/p>\n
With the help of Foundation attorneys, Mulhall originally filed suit against Unite Here in 2008 for agreeing to support Mardi Gras Gaming\u2019s efforts to obtain a gambling license in return for organizing assistance. In exchange for over one hundred thousand dollars in union dues spent on a gambling ballot initiative and a union guarantee not to picket, boycott, or strike against the facility, Mardi Gras Gaming agreed to assist organizers\u2019 efforts to push workers into union ranks. Company officials promised union operatives they would hand over employees\u2019 personal contact information (including home addresses), grant union officials access to Mardi Gras facilities for the purpose of organizing, and refrain from requesting a federally-supervised secret ballot election to determine whether employees actually wanted to unionize.<\/p>\n
However, the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) explicitly prohibits employers from giving \u201cany money or other thing of value\u201d to unions. This rule is intended to prevent union operatives from agreeing to undermine workers\u2019 rights in exchange for concessions from management. In his lawsuit, Mulhall argues that the company\u2019s concessions to Unite Here are of substantial monetary value because they made the union organizing process easier and less expensive. The suit also alleges that Unite Here\u2019s willingness to spend over a hundred thousand dollars to lobby on behalf of Mardi Gras Gaming demonstrates just how valuable the agreement is to union officials. <\/p>\n
So-called \u201cneutrality agreements\u201d between companies and unions like the one agreed upon by Unite Here operatives and Mardi Gras Gaming give union organizers license to browbeat and intimidate workers into acceding to unionization. Armed with employees\u2019 home addresses and access to company facilities, union officials frequently harass and cajole workers on and off the job until they agree to sign cards that are then counted as \u201cvotes\u201d for unionization.<\/p>\n
Although the District Court claimed that Mulhall\u2019s suit could not proceed because he was in no danger of \u201cimminent injury,\u201d the Court of Appeals\u2019 decision recognized that the union\u2019s deal could infringe on employees\u2019 rights to free association by forcing them to accept union monopoly bargaining. The ruling remanded the lawsuit to United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida for it to decide Mulhall\u2019s complaint on the merits. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnite Here operatives agreed to a corrupt bargain that advanced union boss interests at the expense of individual workers\u2019 rights,\u201d said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director for the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cWe\u2019re happy to report that Martin Mulhall\u2019s efforts to challenge this backroom deal will now go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Boca Raton, FL (September 16, 2010) \u2013 With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Mardi Gras Gaming employee has won the right to proceed with a lawsuit aimed at halting a backroom deal in which his employer pledged to assist union organizers and agreed to a coercive card check organizing drive. The United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit overruled a prior District Court decision that held Martin Mulhall lacked standing to sue the Unite Here Local 355 union and Mardi Gras Gaming.<\/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-2903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n