Hollywood, FL (February 3, 2011)<\/b> \u2013 With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Mardi Gras Gaming employee is taking his case against local union officials and his employer to a federal appeals court.<\/p>\n
\nIn 2008, Unite Here Local 355 and Mardi Gras Gaming officials entered into an agreement in which union officials agreed to spend over one hundred thousand dollars in workers\u2019 forced union dues on a gambling ballot initiative and guaranteed not to picket, boycott, or strike against the facility.<\/p>\n
\nIn return, Mardi Gras officials promised they would hand over employees\u2019 personal contact information (including home addresses), grant union operatives access to company facilities for the purpose of organizing through a coercive card check campaign, and refrain from requesting a federally-supervised secret ballot election to determine whether employees actually wanted to unionize.<\/p>\n
\nWith the help of Foundation attorneys, Mardi Gras Gaming employee Martin Mulhall filed a lawsuit against Unite Here in 2008, arguing that the company\u2019s concessions to the union are of substantial monetary value because the company made the union organizing process easier and less expensive.<\/p>\n
\nFederal law aimed at preventing union operatives from agreeing to undermine workers\u2019 rights in exchange for concessions from management explicitly prohibits employers from giving \u201cany money or other thing of value\u201d to unions.<\/p>\n
\nThe suit also alleges that union bosses\u2019 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
\nThe United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently upheld Mulhall\u2019s standing to vindicate his rights in federal court. Now he asks the appellate court to judge his case on the merits and reverse a lower court\u2019s illogical ruling that management\u2019s concessions are not \u201cthings of value.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSo-called \u2018neutrality agreements\u2019 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,\u201d said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director for the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cWorkers should never be cajoled or harassed into union ranks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hollywood, FL (February 3, 2011)<\/b> \u2013 With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Mardi Gras Gaming employee is taking his case against local union officials and his employer to a federal appeals court.<\/p>\n
\nIn 2008, Unite Here Local 355 and Mardi Gras Gaming officials entered into an agreement in which union officials agreed to spend over one hundred thousand dollars in workers\u2019 forced union dues on a gambling ballot initiative and guaranteed not to picket, boycott, or strike against the facility.<\/p>\n
\nIn return, Mardi Gras officials promised they would hand over employees\u2019 personal contact information (including home addresses), grant union operatives access to company facilities for the purpose of organizing through a coercive card check campaign, and refrain from requesting a federally-supervised secret ballot election to determine whether employees actually wanted to unionize.<\/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-2923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n