Boca Raton, FL (January 19, 2012) \u2013 With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Mardi Gras Gaming employee Martin Mulhall has won the right to proceed with a case challenging a backroom organizing deal between the UNITE HERE Local 355 union and his employer. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court\u2019s dismissal and remanded the case to Florida District Court for a decision on the merits. <\/p>\n
In 2004, UNITE HERE Local 355 and Mardi Gras Gaming entered into an agreement in which union officials promised to spend over one hundred thousand dollars on a gambling ballot initiative and guaranteed not to picket, boycott, or strike against Mardi Gras facilities.<\/p>\n
In return, Mardi Gras agreed to hand over employees\u2019 personal contact information (including home addresses), grant union operatives access to company facilities during a coercive \u2018card check\u2019 organizing campaign, and refrain from requesting a federally-supervised secret ballot election to determine whether its employees unionized.<\/p>\n
With the help of Foundation attorneys, Mulhall sued UNITE HERE in 2008. Mulhall argues that the company\u2019s concessions to the union are of substantial monetary value because they made the union organizing process easier and less expensive. <\/p>\n
To prevent backroom deals that undermine employee rights, Section 302 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) prohibits employers from giving \u201cany money or other thing of value\u201d to unions. Although a Florida District Court dismissed Mulhall\u2019s case on the grounds that the company\u2019s organizing assistance was not a thing of value, the Court of Appeals reversed that decision, noting that the company\u2019s support could be of substantial value to a union. <\/p>\n
So-called \u201cneutrality agreements\u201d like the one agreed to by UNITE HERE 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 sign cards that are then counted as \u201cvotes\u201d for unionization. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re pleased that Martin Mulhall\u2019s efforts to challenge this corrupt bargain \u2013 a clear violation of Section 302 of the LMRA \u2013 are moving forward,\u201d said Patrick Semmens, legal information director for the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cFederal law is supposed to protect employees from exactly this type of backroom deal, in which union officials sell out worker interests for an agreement that pushes more employees into the union\u2019s dues-paying ranks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Boca Raton, FL (January 19, 2012) \u2013 With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Mardi Gras Gaming employee Martin Mulhall has won the right to proceed with a case challenging a backroom organizing deal between the UNITE HERE Local 355 union and his employer. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court\u2019s dismissal and remanded the case to Florida District Court for a decision on the merits. <\/p>\n
In 2004, UNITE HERE Local 355 and Mardi Gras Gaming entered into an agreement in which union officials promised to spend over one hundred thousand dollars on a gambling ballot initiative and guaranteed not to picket, boycott, or strike against Mardi Gras facilities.<\/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-2990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n