Washington, DC (August 19, 2011) \u2013 The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) invalidated two unions\u2019 policies that forced nonunion workers to annually renew their objection to funding union political activism within a narrow window period. The decisions result from unfair labor practice charges filed by employees against the United Steel Workers (USW) union and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union. All of the employees were assisted by National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys. <\/p>\n
Under the Foundation-won precedent Communication Workers v. Beck, nonunion employees can only be forced to pay union dues for activities related to workplace bargaining. Although workers cannot be compelled to subsidize unrelated activities \u2013 such as union political spending or members-only events \u2013 IBEW and USW union officials would not accept employees\u2019 permanent objections and instead required nonunion workers to annually restate their opposition to subsidizing union politics. <\/p>\n
In the case of the IBEW, union officials required nonunion employees to restate their objection to union political spending every November. USW officials designated a similar 30 day window period for nonunion employees to renew their opposition to subsidizing union political activities. Under both schemes, union officials could \u201cflip\u201d nonunion workers back to paying full dues if they didn\u2019t jump through the unions\u2019 administrative hoops during the designated window periods. <\/p>\n
The Board\u2019s decisions require both unions to get rid of their annual objection policies and notify all employees in their respective bargaining units they no longer have to renew their objection to union political spending. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re happy to report that all nonunion employees subject to IBEW and USW union monopoly bargaining need only submit a single, permanent objection to get out of funding union politics,\u201d said Patrick Semmens, legal information director for the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cHowever, nonunion workers can still be forced to pay some union dues just to get or keep their jobs, something that can only be solved through state Right to Work laws. <\/p>\n
In recent years, litigation spearheaded by National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys has helped roll back similar annual objection policies at several major unions, including the International Association of Machinists and the Communication Workers of America. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington, DC (August 19, 2011) \u2013 The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) invalidated two unions\u2019 policies that forced nonunion workers to annually renew their objection to funding union political activism within a narrow window period. The decisions result from unfair labor practice charges filed by employees against the United Steel Workers (USW) union and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union. All of the employees were assisted by National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys. <\/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-2959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n