Right to Work - Plumbers and AFT Union Officials forced to concede - plus IKEA - Machinists and more

This week's update covers action involving the AFT, Plumbers, and Machinists unions.
To protect his constitutional rights against, a New York educator fights the New York State United Teachers union. National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys took the first step by filing New York Public Employment Relations Board charges against the NEA-AFT local.
Teachers' union officials ignored Miller's rights and continue to collect full union dues from his paychecks and have failed to provide without providing any Supreme Court-precedent procedural protections.
Even though Delaware does not have Right to Work protections making union affiliation completely voluntary, the U.S. Supreme Court has long held that workers have the right to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership.
Ignoring constitutional protections, Plumbers and Pipe Fitters union officials deducted full union dues from these employees' paychecks.
After federal charges were filed on behalf of these employees, union officials agreed to back off their threats and intimidation of the workers, and to refund illegally seized union dues.
"Plumbers Local 74 union officials flushed these workers' rights down the toilet in order to keep their forced dues gravy train going," said Mark Mix.
In another victory for National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, this time on the West Coast, school bus drivers slam the brake on AFT union officials' threats.
In Gresham, Oregon, a group of local school bus drivers won a federal settlement including back pay.
Oregon School Employees Union officials had illegally demanded that demanded that all drivers join the union and pay full union dues or be fired.
The settlement stems from a federal charge six of the drivers filed with the National Labor Relations Board Regional Office in Seattle with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.
AFT union officials confiscated full union dues from the drivers' paychecks without informing the workers of their right to refrain from formal union membership. Union officials continued to confiscate full union dues from both drivers who refused to join the union.
After the six drivers represented by Foundation attorneys filed the federal charge, union officials were forced to settle the case and also agreed to refund back pay to four other drivers.
An update to one of our recent previous reports... With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, another Maryland IKEA employee filed federal unfair labor practice charges against IKEA and the International Association of Machinists union. Herman Brunswick, Jr. alleges that union officials failed to notify him of his rights not to join the union and pay full dues and illegally threatened to have him fired for refusing to pay up.
Brunswick's complaint follows similar charges filed by two of his coworkers, Kelvin Smith and Robert Rammel, last January.
Not only did IAM officials and IKEA fail to notify Brunswick and his coworkers of their rights, they actively misled employees about their obligations to the union. IAM officials claimed that joining the union and paying full dues were required as a condition of employment. Faced with the prospect of losing his job,
When Brunswick asked about his right to refrain from financially supporting the IAM's political activities, he was told by a Machinists union official that he had no such rights. After he learned otherwise, Brunswick resigned from the union and objected to paying for union political activities. The IAM, however, refuses to honor his objections.
Brunswick's charges will now be investigated by the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency responsible for administering private sector labor law.
"Union officials actively misled IKEA employees about their rights in order to collect more forced dues cash for the IAM's coffers," said Mark Mix

Published on Mar 26, 2013

A Right to Work law secures the right of employees to decide for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union. However, employees who work in the railway or airline industries are not protected by a Right to Work law, and employees who work on a federal enclave may not be.

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