Are Top Teamster Bosses throwing Yellow drivers under the bus as part of their posturing for UPS strike threat?

Washington, DC (July 21, 2023) – Today, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation issued a special legal notice to employees of trucking company Yellow in light of news reports indicating that Teamsters union officials have issued a strike notice. The Foundation’s legal notice is available at the Foundation’s website here: www.nrtw.org/Yellow.

The Foundation is the nation’s premier organization dedicated to defending workers’ legal rights from forced unionism abuses. Rank-and-file workers who are interested in continuing to work and providing for their families during a strike often contact the Foundation for free legal aid to avoid strike discipline, or to resist intimidation often perpetrated by union officials.

The notice alerts workers that a strike could commence as soon Monday, July 24, and reminds workers that they should “learn about [their] legal rights from independent sources.”

“You should not rely on what self-interested union officials tell you,” the notice reads.

Employees Have Right to Rebuff Union Strike Orders

The legal notice informs Yellow workers who want to work during a strike that they should submit resignations prior to returning to work, because doing so is the best way to avoid vindictive union fines and often union discipline. “Your resignation letter must be postmarked the day before you return to work, or hand-delivered before you actually return to work,” the notice reads. Sample union membership resignation letters are available on the Foundation’s website.

The notice also informs employees of their other rights to disaffiliate from the Teamsters union, including how to stop funding unwanted union activities.

“If you work in a state with Right to Work protections, you have a right to cut off all payments of dues and fees to the union if you don’t support its activities,” the notice reads. “If you do not work in a state with Right to Work protections, you at least have a right to opt-out of dues payments for union politics, and may be able to avoid other union financial support.”

Foundation Attorneys Have Won Many Cases for Workers Against Illegal Strike Coercion

The Foundation frequently provides free legal assistance to workers who want to exercise their right to work during a union boss-ordered strike. During the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union’s strike against supermarket chain King Soopers in 2022, Foundation-assisted workers successfully forced union officials to back off of thousands of dollars in illegal strike fine demands.

Foundation staff attorneys also made headlines across the country in 2001, when they won a monetary settlement for UPS employee and former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Rod Carter, a victim of union violence during the 1997 Teamsters union officials’ nationwide strike against UPS.

“Many Yellow employees are likely questioning whether the hardline stance of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and other Teamsters bosses is really in Yellow employees’ best interest,” commented National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation President Mark Mix. “As O’Brien himself has acknowledged on social media, a strike could result in Yellow folding and a loss of work for 22,000 truckers – workers that Teamsters chiefs claim to ‘represent.’”

“More likely than not, O’Brien and the bosses atop the Teamsters union are playing such games with Yellow workers’ livelihoods in order to maintain a façade of strength for upcoming contract talks with UPS management,” Mix continued. “Yellow truckers who oppose such gamesmanship and would prefer to continue to do their jobs in defiance of Teamsters bosses’ orders should read the Foundation’s legal notice for a full explanation of their rights, and are welcome to seek free Foundation legal aid if they encounter any obstacles to exercising their right to work.”

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.