Federal labor board orders employer to post notice properly informing employees of their rights and will soon prosecute Teamsters Local 585 union

Pittsburgh, PA (January 12, 2026) – Josh Hammaker, a driver for ABARTA Coca-Cola’s Houston, PA, distribution center, has notched a victory in his National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) case against Teamsters Local 585 union officials and his employer.

After filing federal charges stating that union officials and his employer threatened to fire him for refusing to join the union, ABARTA management backed down and settled its part of the case. Regional NLRB officials have also indicated that they will prosecute Teamsters officials for making forced-membership demands, pending the resolution of other elements of Hammaker’s case.

Hammaker pursued his case at the NLRB with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys. Under the National Labor Relations Act and Supreme Court cases like General Motors v. NLRB, neither union officials nor employers can require workers to maintain formal union membership as a condition of getting or keeping a job. According to Hammaker’s charges, Teamsters union officials and ABARTA management violated federal labor law by effectively telling him they would get him fired if he did not join.

As part of the settlement, ABARTA officials must post notices at Hammaker’s workplace stating that they “will not tell employees that we will discharge them if they do not sign and submit applications to join the Union…”

Coca-Cola Driver Continues Battle Against Political Dues Skimming

However, one charge that Hammaker made against Teamsters Local 585 is still pending at the NLRB. This charge concerns Teamsters bosses unlawfully seizing dues for politics out of workers’ paychecks. Hammaker argues that Teamsters policies breached federal labor law by requiring workers to “affirmatively opt out of paying [dues] for non-chargeable expenditures” as opposed to seeking worker consent beforehand.

Federal law lets union bosses enforce contracts that force workers to pay union fees or be fired in states that lack Right to Work protections, like Pennsylvania. However, the Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision limits this compulsory fee amount to only what union officials claim goes toward bargaining – which excludes “non-chargeable” expenses like political or ideological activities. In Right to Work states, by contrast, all union financial support is voluntary.

In an appeal currently pending before the new NLRB General Counsel, Foundation attorneys argue that workers should not be forced to affirmatively assert their Beck rights just to stop their money from flowing to union political and ideological activities. After being confirmed by the U.S. Senate last month, new NLRB General Counsel Crystal Carey was officially sworn in last Wednesday.

“We are proud to have supported Mr. Hammaker’s victory over these blatantly illegal attempts to coerce formal union membership,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “But his fight is far from over. The sad fact is that union bosses across the country skim dues for their often-radical political activities straight from worker paychecks without any positive consent at all. To make matters worse, union officials often don’t inform workers about their Beck rights, which is workers’ only escape from such deductions in non-Right to Work states.

“Right to Work protections should exist nationwide because they put American workers – not union bosses or bureaucrats – back in control of deciding whether a union has earned employees’ financial support,” Mix added. “But in the meantime, the NLRB should at least require union officials to earn political support from those workers they claim to ‘represent’ and end schemes that require workers to opt-out of funding union political activities.”

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.