27 Mar 2023

National Right to Work Foundation Issues Special Legal Notices to Michigan Workers After Right to Work Repeal

Posted in News Releases

Michigan workers can still reject union boss demands to formally join union and fund union ideological activities

Washington, DC (March 27, 2023) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has issued special legal notices to private and public sector workers in Michigan, following the Michigan Legislature’s repeal of the state’s popular Right to Work protections. Governor Whitmer signed the repeal bills last Friday.

The legal notices are available at the Foundation’s website: https://www.nrtw.org/michigan-private-sector-notice/ (for private sector workers) https://www.nrtw.org/michigan-public-sector-notice/ (for public sector workers).

The repeal will eventually grant Michigan union officials the power to compel private sector workers to pay money to a union hierarchy simply to keep a job. Although the repeal will not take effect until after the Legislature’s term concludes, the Foundation is issuing its notice now in response to workers’ inquiries already coming in about what this means for their rights and freedoms.

The legal notices explain that, despite this massive expansion of government-granted power for Michigan union bosses, private sector workers still have rights under federal law to opt out of formal union membership and to refuse to pay for union political or ideological expenditures, among other rights.

“[U]nder the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) workers subject to these forced fee arrangements cannot lawfully be compelled to be actual union members or pay full union dues to keep their jobs,” the notice reads.

As for public sector workers, the legal notices inform Michiganders that even though Michigan’s politicians have undone the state’s statutory protection against being forced to pay union bosses as a condition of employment, the repeal “does not—and cannot—strip [public sector] workers of their constitutional right” to refrain from funding union activities. The Supreme Court recognized public employees’ First Amendment right to abstain from union financial support in the 2018 Foundation-won Janus v. AFSCME ruling.

Despite Outrageous Union Power Grab, MI Union Bosses Still Can’t Force Private Sector Workers to Become Formal Members or Directly Support Union Politics

The notices inform Michigan private sector employees that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Pattern Makers v. NLRB protects independent-minded workers’ right to refrain from formal union membership. The Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court ruling also holds that, in a workplace under union control, the most that union bosses can force nonmember workers to pay is only a portion “of what the union can prove is its costs of collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance adjustment with their employer,” an amount that does not include ideological expenses.

“Unions often fail to meet their legal obligation to inform workers of their right not to be a union member and to object to paying full union dues,” the notice reads. “In fact, unions sometimes mislead workers to believe that they must join the union to keep their jobs.”

On the issue of union fees, the notices continue, private sector workers also have a right not to have employers directly deducting such fees from their paychecks at union officials’ behest. Under the NLRA, union officials must obtain affirmative permission from an employee before making an employer redirect any portion of compensation to a union.

MI Private Sector Workers Have Right to Vote Out Unpopular Union Bosses

Private sector employees also have the right to petition for National Labor Relations Board-supervised “decertification elections,” which can strip union officials of their coercive powers of monopoly control over a work unit entirely.

Foundation attorneys assist hundreds of workers every year in voting out unions of which they disapprove, and NLRB data show that the average unionized worker is far more likely to be involved in an effort to vote out a union then a nonunion worker is to be involved in a unionization push.

“Union-label Michigan legislators are waging an all-out assault on Michigan workers’ individual rights by repealing Right to Work,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Instead of letting Michigan workers continue to enjoy the right to freely choose whether or not union officials have earned a cut of their hard-earned pay, Michigan legislators have granted union bosses a power that strips away basic free association rights – a power that 71% of those from Michigan union households do not want unions to have.”

“Michigan union bosses, including those at the scandal-mired UAW, will soon begin demanding that any worker under their control pay tribute to union bosses or else be fired,” Mix continued. “That’s why it’s more important than ever that Michigan workers know that they still have protections against many union boss demands, and Foundation attorneys will aid them in aggressively defending those rights.”

9 Apr 2022

Case Closed: Nurse Prevails in 11-Year Legal Fight Over Forced Dues

Posted in Newsletter Articles

The following article is from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation’s bi-monthly Foundation Action Newsletter, January/February 2022 edition. To view other editions of Foundation Action or to sign up for a free subscription, click here.

100 Rhode Island hospital employees win refund of dues illegally seized for union lobbying

After over a decade of battling power-hungry UNAP union bosses in court, Jeanette Geary has secured not only refunds of dues seized for union politics, but a First Circuit decision clarifying non-members can never be charged for union lobbying.

After over a decade of battling power-hungry UNAP union bosses in court, Jeanette Geary has secured not only refunds of dues seized for union politics, but a First Circuit decision clarifying non-members can never be charged for union lobbying.

WARWICK, RI – Jeanette Geary finally achieved a total victory in her 11-year legal battle against union bosses. She and 99 other current and former nurses at Kent Hospital in Rhode Island received refunds of forced dues that were illegally used to support union lobbying in state legislatures. Foundation attorneys represented Geary throughout her fight.

Geary’s journey began when she grew frustrated with United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP) union bosses in her workplace. “I realized what the union was doing,” Geary explained. “The union leadership had no interest in nurses or our professional work. Their only interest was collection of dues and fees.”

Geary resigned her union membership, but union dues were still extracted from her paycheck because Rhode Island is a forced unionism state that lacks Right to Work protections. However, thanks to the Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision, nonmember workers can only be forced to pay fees for union activities “germane” to union monopoly bargaining. They cannot be forced to pay the portion of dues that funds activities like union lobbying.

Nurse Harassed for Standing Up to Union Bosses

Geary demanded a breakdown of the union’s expenditures, but union bosses refused to give her a legally required independent auditor’s verification of how they calculated non-members’ reduced forced fees. Like many who speak up against union bosses, Geary became a target for union harassment. “They laughed at me. They had their workplace reps ridicule me on the job and tell me I could file grievances that would be thrown away and said so with a big smile,” Geary recalled.

In 2009, Geary filed federal charges against union officials. The trial revealed UNAP officials were charging non-member nurses for lobbying in state legislatures. Despite the Supreme Court’s clear mandate in Beck that non-members’ money could not be used to fund political causes, union lawyers argued the lobbying was “germane” to the union’s monopoly bargaining.

Thanks to delays caused by President Obama’s illegal recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Geary had to file two petitions with the U.S.

Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., and didn’t get a final NLRB ruling for nearly a decade. Finally, in March 2019, the NLRB ruled 3-1 that union officials cannot charge non-members for lobbying of any kind. It also ruled that union officials must provide independent verification that the union expenses they force non-members to pay have been audited.

Union Bosses Ridiculously Claimed Some Union Lobbying Wasn’t Political

Union officials still wouldn’t abandon their argument that nonmembers could be forced to pay for some union lobbying as a condition of employment. Union lawyers appealed the NLRB’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. A three-judge panel that included retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter ruled unanimously in Geary’s favor, saying “we see no convincing argument that legislative lobbying is not a ‘political’ activity.”

Union officials made a last-ditch attempt to overturn the decision, requesting an en banc hearing by the entire Court of Appeals, but that request was denied. In September 2021, union bosses finally paid back, with interest, thousands of dollars taken from Geary and 99 other current and former Kent Hospital nurses who were not union members but were charged for the union’s lobbying, bringing the decade-long case to a close.

“Jeanette Geary faced workplace ridicule for her decision to stand up to union bosses, yet she persevered for eleven years,” said National Right to Work Foundation Vice President and Legal Director Raymond LaJeunesse. “In the process, she won important legal precedents that will protect thousands of other workers from having their money illegally used to fund union politics.”