San Antonio Airport Fuel Workers Opposed to Forced Dues Win Freedom from Unwanted Machinists Union Bosses
Faced with overwhelming, majority-backed petition to remove the union, IAM union officials left rather than face election defeat
San Antonio, TX (August 21, 2026) – Fueling employees with Allied Aviation Fueling Company of San Antonio have regained their workplace freedom from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), District 142. The workers, who operate and maintain the fueling facilities of San Antonio International Airport (SAT), filed a petition for a “decertification” election earlier in August. Employee Matthew Garwood, the lead petitioner, received assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.
The petition was filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law, a task that includes administering elections to install (or “certify”) and remove (or “decertify”) unions. The petition was signed by the majority of fuel workers, easily surpassing the threshold of signatures needed for the NLRB to schedule a decertification vote.
However, before the vote could be scheduled, IAM District 142 union bosses, likely fearing a defeat in a secret-ballot election, formally “disclaimed interest” in the bargaining unit, meaning that they withdrew their claim of monopoly bargaining powers over the workers. As a result, the approximately 38 airline fueling workers are now free to negotiate directly with their employer.
“The IAM was not negotiating in our best interests,” said Garwood. “We are grateful to have regained control over our workplace after being confronted with a poorly-written contract that negatively impacted employees in multiple ways and threatened us with forced dues just to stay employed.”
Union Bosses Tried to Circumvent State and Federal Law
Texas is one of 26 states with a Right to Work law, which safeguards workers by making union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary. However, the IAM was attempting to claim the employees were subject to the Railway Labor Act, which overrides worker protections against forced dues provided by state Right to Work laws.
Ultimately though, despite pushing for mandatory dues in the union contract, IAM union officials were apparently unwilling to defend the claim that these workers were covered by the Railway Labor Act before the NLRB.
“Union bosses have no shortage of tricks to use when trying to maintain their stranglehold on hardworking Americans’ paychecks, but in this case, the workers of Allied Aviation made their will abundantly clear,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “We are grateful to have assisted these workers as they exercised their rights, and especially pleased that they were able to regain their workplace so quickly.
“Cases like these demonstrate why all hardworking Americans need Right to Work protections to ensure union affiliation and financial support is strictly voluntary, including those who might fall under the jurisdiction of the Railway Labor Act because they work in the railroad or airline industry,” added Mix.
Orlando Airport Fueling Employees Successfully Oust USWU Union Officials Who Tried to Stop Union Decertification Vote
USWU outrageously claimed that vote among approximately 1,000 PrimeFlight employees across country was necessary to boot union just at Orlando Airport
Orlando, FL (May 2, 2023) – Robert Anderson and his fellow PrimeFlight Aviation Services fueling employees at Orlando International Airport have successfully ousted United Service Workers Union (USWU) Local 74 union officials from their workplace. Anderson and his colleagues received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation in removing the unwanted union.
Anderson and his coworkers submitted a majority-backed petition to the National Mediation Board (NMB) in March 2023. The petition contained enough employee support to prompt the agency to conduct a union “decertification” investigation at his facility. However, union officials objected to letting the employees vote, outrageously claiming that Anderson and his coworkers were actually part of a nationwide “system” and the union decertification election would need to be conducted among almost every PrimeFlight employee in the country – even though Anderson and his colleagues simply wanted to dismiss the union from their Orlando workplace alone.
Foundation Attorneys Expose Outrageous Union Scheme to Stop Vote
Foundation attorneys refuted union arguments in a position statement, contending that the union’s position was completely at odds with the Railway Labor Act’s (RLA) basic purposes, which ensure that “employees can [choose] to join or refrain from unionization, and that they are entitled to the fullest freedom in making that choice.” The RLA governs private sector labor relations in the air and rail industries.
“The [union] reasoning is both illogical and devastating to employee free choice,” said Foundation attorneys’ statement. “Local 74 would require some 1,000 PrimeFlight fuelers, at all locations, to weigh-in on whether the employees at one specific location in Orlando should be represented by Local 74, even though those other employees cannot possibly have any…interest in the representational choices of the Orlando location’s employees.”
Further, Foundation attorneys pointed out that USWU union officials’ position was especially suspect considering “the fuelers at other locations are represented by unions other than Local 74” (emphasis added) and have completely different contracts and working conditions. Had the USWU officials’ position been adopted, in order to eject a union for workers at one location, the workers would need signatures from hundreds or potentially thousands of workers at other locations. That could include not only workers covered by different unions with entirely different monopoly bargaining contracts, but also nonunion workers at other facilities who are already free to negotiate their own terms of employment.
USWU Officials Back Down, Abandon Orlando Airport
After Foundation attorneys countered the union’s contentions, USWU union officials quickly backed down and disclaimed interest in maintaining power over Anderson and his coworkers. Likely wanting to avoid a vote of the rank-and-file fueling employees who petitioned for the decertification vote, union officials issued a letter on April 21, 2023, declaring that the union “abandons its representative status and disclaims interest in the aforementioned employees.”
The NMB closed the case on April 26, 2023, meaning Anderson and his fellow fuelers are officially free of the union.
Foundation attorneys have continuously sought to safeguard workers’ right to decertify unwanted unions at the NMB. In 2020, the Foundation filed a brief at the agency opposing the AFL-CIO’s effort to bring back the arbitrary “straw man” rule, which required workers interested in decertifying a union to solicit support for a fake “straw man” union just to vote out incumbent union officials.
“USWU union officials’ ridiculous proposal of a nationwide decertification vote disrespects the rights of rank-and-file employees to vote out union bosses they oppose,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “We applaud Mr. Anderson and his fellow airplane fuelers for exercising their rights even in the face of such opposition from USWU union officials, but there are likely many other employees across the country whose efforts to oust an unpopular union have been stifled by such legal maneuvering. National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys stand ready to aid employees who experience similar barriers to their rights.”
