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.
Wyoming Wells Fargo Bank Branch Employees Latest Group to Win Freedom from Unwanted CWA Union Bosses
Once CWA union officials’ attempt to block election failed, union once again conceded defeat rather than contest decertification election
Casper, WY (June 11, 2026) – Employees at a Wells Fargo branch in Casper have successfully regained their independence from Communications Workers of America (CWA) union bosses. The effort to remove the union was initiated when bank employees filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking a “decertification” election to remove the CWA as the bargaining representative at their Wells Fargo branch. The petition was filed with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation.
The NLRB is 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 decertification petition was signed by the vast majority of employees at the Wells Fargo branch, easily surpassing the required threshold of signatures needed for the NLRB to schedule a decertification vote.
Despite the overwhelming support for decertifying, CWA officials initially attempted to disenfranchise the employees using the NLRB’s “blocking charge” policy, which allows unions to delay, or even block entirely, worker-demanded decertification votes with unproven allegations against an employer. However, when Foundation staff attorneys pushed back against the blocking charges, the CWA dropped them, likely because the NLRB would have otherwise dismissed them as meritless.
At that point, with a decertification vote unavoidable, CWA union bosses simply “disclaimed” representation at the branch rather than face an overwhelming election defeat. Now the NLRB has accepted the disclaimer and formally revoked the union’s certification as the workers “exclusive representative.”
This year alone, Foundation staff attorneys have assisted successful Wells Fargo employee efforts to remove unwanted CWA union bosses in Spring Hill and Bradenton, Florida, Seaside Park, New Jersey, and Wilmington, Delaware. Another group of workers in Apex, North Carolina, also successfully removed the union in March. This is now the fifth Foundation-assisted case of Wells Fargo employees removing unwanted CWA union bosses from their branch.
“The Foundation is proud to assist Wells Fargo employees in Casper and other branches across the country seeking to exercise their right to free themselves from unwanted unions,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “As this string of wins by Wells Fargo employees seeking to remove the CWA demonstrates, these employees that have seen the union up close continue to come to the conclusion that they are better off without the CWA at their workplace.”
New Jersey Wells Fargo Bank Employees Formally Oust CWA Union Bosses
Branch is the latest in growing movement by Wells Fargo employees endeavoring to end union affiliation
Seaside Park, NJ (April 27, 2026) – Employees at Wells Fargo’s Seaside Park branch have successfully removed Communications Workers of America (CWA) union bosses from their workplace. The effort to remove the union was initiated when bank employee Lisa Sholtis filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking a “decertification” election to remove CWA union officials from the Seaside Park Wells Fargo location. Sholtis filed the petition for her coworkers with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation.
The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law, a task that includes administering elections to install (or “certify”) and remove (or “decertify”) unions. Sholtis’ petition was signed by enough of her Wells Fargo coworkers to prompt the NLRB to schedule a union decertification vote.
The workers requested that the NLRB schedule a secret-ballot election among all full-time and regular part-time tellers and personal bankers employed by Wells Fargo at the Seaside Park branch. The workers were looking to vote on whether to remove the so-called “Wells Fargo Workers United” union (an affiliate of the CWA union).
However, shortly before the election was scheduled by the NLRB, CWA union bosses declared that they “disclaim interest” in the Seaside Park Wells Fargo employees. CWA union officials, possibly anticipating an embarrassing election loss, abandoned their status as the workers’ so-called “representatives.”
“After nearly two years with the CWA doing little to nothing for employees at the Seaside Park Branch, we finally have our branch back,” stated Sholtis.
New Jersey is one of the 24 states without Right to Work protections that make union affiliation and dues payment fully voluntary, meaning that Sholtis and her coworkers could have been forced to pay union dues or fees to union officials or else be fired once the employer entered into a union agreement with CWA.
The Seaside Park workers are the latest in a growing movement of Wells Fargo employees across the nation seeking to cast off their CWA “representatives.” Last month, Foundation-assisted Wells Fargo employees in Spring Hill, Florida, and Casper, Wyoming, filed respective petitions to remove the CWA from their branches. More requests for help continue to come in.
In Spring Hill, Florida, CWA union bosses similarly moved to “disclaim interest” in the bank workers, removing themselves as the employees’ monopoly bargaining “representatives,” rather than facing a potentially humiliating decertification vote. In Casper, Wyoming, CWA union officials are seeking to disenfranchise employees by preventing them from even holding the vote. In yet another decertification effort, last month Wells Fargo employees in Apex, North Carolina, overwhelmingly voted to remove CWA union officials from their branch.
“We are pleased to be able to support Ms. Sholtis and her coworkers as they exercise their legal right to remove unwanted CWA union bosses,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “As the movement by Wells Fargo employees to eject the CWA spreads, the Foundation is ready to assist them in exercising their rights under federal law to hold votes to remove the unwanted union.”
Kentucky Construction Industry Workers File Petitions to Oust Teamsters Local 89 Union from their Workplaces
IMI – Irving Materials drivers already free of Teamsters officials’ so-called “representation” while Builders FirstSource workers await vote
Scottsville & Louisville, KY (September 22, 2025) – Chris Smith, an employee of IMI Kentucky in Scottsville, KY, and Kenneth Moore, an employee of Builders FirstSource in Louisville, KY, each filed petitions seeking to end Teamsters Local 89 union officials’ “representation” at their respective workplaces. IMI workers already secured victory in their effort to remove the Teamsters, while the effort to remove the Teamsters at Builders FirstSource is still ongoing.
Both Smith and Moore filed their petitions with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys. The NLRB is the federal agency tasked with enforcing federal labor law and with adjudicating disputes between employers, unions, and individual workers. Workers are able to initiate an election administered by the NLRB if their petition gathers the signatures of 30% or more of their fellow employees.
Smith and Moore’s respective petitions garnered the necessary signatures from their coworkers to trigger an NLRB-administered secret ballot election to vote on the Local 89’s continued control. After employees demonstrate sufficient support for a decertification, in most cases the NLRB will schedule a secret ballot election. That process is ongoing for the employees of Builders FirstSource in Louisville.
However, in Smith’s case the employee support for removing the union was so overwhelming that Teamsters union bosses decided to save themselves the humiliation of being formally voted out, and instead disclaimed their status as the workers’ “exclusive representative” the very same day Smith’s petition was filed. The next day the NLRB Regional Director certified that the employees are officially free of Teamsters Local 89.
The employees at IMI Kentucky and Builders FirstSource join a long list of workers who have recently banded together to remove the Teamsters from their workplaces. In fact, NLRB statistics for the past 12 months show that over 20% of all decertification cases involved the Teamsters union.
“More and more, American workers across the country are deciding they are better off without Teamsters union bosses who prioritize their own interests over that of the workers they claim to ‘represent,’” stated National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “As Teamsters bosses attempt to cozy up to those in the halls of power, elected officials should remember that despite the claims of dishonest union bosses, union officials do not speak for the workers under their so-called ‘representation,’ many of whom would like to remove the Teamsters if given the choice. In fact, statistics show that over 90% of employees have never had a vote on the union that purports to represent them.
“That one in five decertification petitions filed last year involved the Teamsters only drives home the point that workers are increasingly rejecting union bosses’ coercive agenda,” added Mix.
New Jersey Energy Workers Win Bid to Remove Unwanted Union
So-called ‘SMART’ Local 137 union officials disclaim representation rather than face a decertification vote of rank-and-file workers
Fairlawn, NJ (March 23, 2023) – Calmac Corp employee Carlos Flores and his coworkers have won their effort to free themselves of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation (“SMART”) Local 137 union. The worker’s decertification effort recently became official when the SMART Local 137 union officials preemptively “disclaimed” interest in representing the Calmac Corp workers, rather than face a vote on whether to remove the union.
Flores, during the course of the decertification effort, received free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys. The decertification petition, filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), included the signatures of a significant portion of his coworkers.
The Calmac Corp employee petition was filed on March 7, 2023. The petition was quickly followed by a letter from union officials, disclaiming interest in “representing” Calmac Corp workers. Luckily for the Calmac workers, the entire decertification process was completed rather quickly. However, this is not always the case for many workers around the nation who are also working to remove overbearing unions.
For example, the NLRB’s union decertification process is prone to union boss-created roadblocks. That includes “blocking charges”, or charges union officials levy against employers in an attempt to postpone or de-legitimize decertification efforts. These charges often have little to no basis and are used specifically to delay decertification petitions.
Foundation-backed reforms the NLRB adopted in 2020 made it somewhat easier for workers to remove unwanted union officials, and made it harder for unions to file blocking charges. However, the Biden NLRB is attempting to roll back these protections and make it much more difficult to decertify a union.
Worker interest in removing unwanted unions is growing nationwide, with National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys fielding numerous requests for free legal assistance in decertification cases, with Flores and his coworkers just being one of these cases.
The NLRB’s own data show that, currently, a unionized private sector worker is more than twice as likely to be involved in a decertification effort as a nonunion worker is to be involved in a unionization campaign.
“While we are extremely satisfied Calmac Corp workers were able to exercise their right to be union-free, had the 2020 Foundation-backed reforms to the NLRB not been in place this could have been a different story with union officials dragging out the process even though they clearly knew any vote would go against the union,” observed Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation.
“Should the Biden-appointed NLRB Members be successful in their goal to roll back these reforms, workers like those at Calmac Corp could face enormous hurdles in their decertification efforts and be trapped within union ranks for months or even years,” Mix continued.
