Sacramento, CA (December 20, 2010)<\/b> \u2013 A Sutter Roseville Medical Center healthcare professional has filed federal labor charges against a local union for coercing her and her colleagues into paying forced union dues.<\/p>\n
\nWith free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, Mary Massen filed the unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board regional office in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
\nBecause California does not have Right to Work protections for its workers, Massen, who elects to refrain from formal union membership, is still forced to pay union fees as a condition of employment. However, because of a National Right to Work Foundation-won Supreme Court precedent in Communication Workers v. Beck<\/i>, she cannot be compelled to pay the portion of union dues used for the union\u2019s political, lobbying, and member-only activities. Union officials are also legally obligated to inform workers of these rights and to provide workers with an independently verified audit of chargeable and non-chargeable expenses.<\/p>\n
\nService Employees International Union (SEIU) United Healthcare Workers \u2013 West union officials refuse to provide the Center\u2019s nonmember employees with the disclosure Beck<\/i> requires. SEIU United Healthcare union officials also require the workers to annually object, a tactic designed to force workers into paying full union dues. Foundation attorneys defeated the annual objection requirement of another union before the NLRB earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\nAdditionally, this union requires employees who choose not to join the union to provide their social security numbers to refrain from supporting the union officials\u2019 non-bargaining expenses, further discouraging workers from exercising their rights.<\/p>\n
\nThe use of social security numbers by union bosses to retaliate against workers who refuse to toe the union line is not without precedent. In an ongoing case, Foundation attorneys are assisting 16 employees in North Carolina whose social security numbers and other personal information were publicly posted by union officials in apparent retaliation for exercising their right to not join the union. <\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt is unconscionable for union officials to require employees to give away sensitive personal information for no other reason than to discourage them from exercising their constitutional rights\u201d said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cCalifornia needs a Right to Work law to protect workers from these forced unionism abuses in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sacramento, CA (December 20, 2010)<\/b> \u2013 A Sutter Roseville Medical Center healthcare professional has filed federal labor charges against a local union for coercing her and her colleagues into paying forced union dues.<\/p>\n
\nWith free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, Mary Massen filed the unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board regional office in San Francisco.<\/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-2919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n