Seattle, Washington (July 5, 2011) \u2013 The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency responsible for administering private sector labor law, has found merit to charges filed by two Virginia Mason Medical Center nurses against the Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA) union. The charges, which were filed for the nurses by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, state that WSNA officials automatically enrolled nurses in the union without their consent and forced them to pay full union dues. <\/p>\n
By finding merit to the charges, the National Labor Relations Board has signaled that WSNA officials must enter into a unit-wide settlement that protects nurses\u2019 rights or face prosecution. The NLRB also agrees that a provision in the union\u2019s contract limiting nurses\u2019 right to resign is unlawful. <\/p>\n
Therese Mollerus-Gale still works at Virginia Mason Medical Center while Maureen Lenahan has since resigned her position to accompany her husband to his next military posting. Because Washington lacks a Right to Work law, employees like Lenahan and Mollerus-Gale can be forced to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. However, the Foundation-won Supreme Court precedent Communication Workers v. Beck holds that nonunion employees cannot be charged for union activities unrelated to workplace bargaining, such as members-only events and political activism.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, another nurse has stepped forward to file new unfair labor practice charges against the WSNA union. According to Amber Finn, who also works at Virginia Mason, WSNA officials ignored her letter requesting nonmember status, enrolled her as a union member without her consent, and threatened to have her fired for refusing to pay full dues. <\/p>\n
WSNA officials also resorted to frivolous procedural tactics to prevent Finn from leaving the union, ignoring her resignation letter because she didn\u2019t submit it via certified mail. Moreover, WSNA officials failed to provide nurses with an independently-audited breakdown of union expenditures, which is required by law to help nonunion employees determine what dues they have to pay as a condition of keeping their jobs. <\/p>\n
The NLRB will now investigate Finn\u2019s charges against the union. <\/p>\n
\u201cHard-working nurses shouldn\u2019t be pushed into union ranks and forced to pay tribute to WSNA bosses just to keep their jobs,\u201d said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director for the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cNobody should have to pay union dues or join a union just to make a living, which is why Washington needs to make union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary by passing a Right to Work law immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seattle, Washington (July 5, 2011) \u2013 The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency responsible for administering private sector labor law, has found merit to charges filed by two Virginia Mason Medical Center nurses against the Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA) union. The charges, which were filed for the nurses by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, state that WSNA officials automatically enrolled nurses in the union without their consent and forced them to pay full union dues. <\/p>\n
By finding merit to the charges, the National Labor Relations Board has signaled that WSNA officials must enter into a unit-wide settlement that protects nurses\u2019 rights or face prosecution. The NLRB also agrees that a provision in the union\u2019s contract limiting nurses\u2019 right to resign is unlawful. <\/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-2949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n