Settlement: Union bosses must notify workers of their rights as required by Beck US Supreme Court decision, and also refund money illegally collected from employee

Anaheim, CA (February 26, 2020) – With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a Disneyland stage technician has just won a settlement requiring International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 504 union bosses to return fees they illegally collected from him, and inform employees who refrain from formal union membership of their right to pay a reduced amount of dues.

Stage technician Mark Stacy, who is not a member of the IATSE union, asserted his rights under the Foundation-won Communications Workers of America v. Beck U.S. Supreme Court decision. That decision requires unions to reduce the compulsory fees charged to workers who refrain from union membership so they are not forced to fund activities such as lobbying and political activism. The Beck decision additionally calls for union officials to provide nonmember workers an independently verified audit justifying the amount of the mandatory union fees.

Because California private-sector employees lack the protection of a Right to Work law, they can be fired for refusing to pay fees to a union. However, union officials can charge as a condition of employment only the part of dues Beck permits and must follow Beck procedures before seizing such forced union fees from workers who are not union members.

Stacy hit IATSE bosses with federal charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last July, asserting that they had illegally collected union dues from him and had not complied with Beck’s procedural requirements, including providing him with a valid and complete audit.

Now, as a result of the settlement, IATSE bosses will refund the money they collected from him. The settlement also orders union officials to “inform objecting nonmembers of the complete basis for [the] calculation of the percentage reduction in dues and fees” and not to “accept and retain dues which have been deducted” from Stacy “without his prior written authorization.” The settlement provides remedies for all of the rights violations Stacy had asserted in his original charge.

Foundation staff attorneys are also providing free legal aid to a Disney actress, 12-year-old Aundrea Smith, following her assertions that American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union bosses’ are threatening to impose union “discipline” on her for acting in a nonunion commercial before she was even a member of SAG-AFTRA. Smith, who resigned her union membership last August, currently acts in “Diary of a Future President,” a series on Disney’s streaming service.

“Mr. Stacy dedicates his working life to making children’s dreams come true, and it’s outrageous that IATSE union bosses believed they could violate the most basic protections on his workplace rights,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “While his victory is certainly good news, this case shows why California workers need the protections of a Right to Work law to ensure that union membership and financial support are voluntary, not coerced.”

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.