“Card Check” Deception Targets College Students
Speaking of "card check," a Washington State University student is calling out the United Auto Workers union on its recent use of a deceptive "card check" drive to forcibly unionize academic student employees. The student writes:
Several students were led to believe they were signing to get
information or support exploring the efficacy of students unionizing.
With a sense of urgency and high pressure tactics, many students filled
out cards.
In addition to noting that students would be forced to pay dues if the UAW was installed, the student adds:
We find it insulting to our intelligence and levels of educational
achievement to mislead, misrepresent and misinform us to gain student
support.
As Karen Mayhew, a National Right to Work Foundation-aided employee from Portland, Oregon, told Congress last year:
…union abuses of a wide variety are the rule in ‘card check’ campaigns, not the exception.
All the more reason that employees should be aware of their rights during a "card check" drive.
New Video: Coercive “Card Check” Union Organizing Victims Speak Out
A group of Dana Corporation employees from Albion, Indiana, recently fought their way free of the unwanted United Auto Workers union capitalizing on a ruling won by the National Right to Work Foundation.
Judge Strikes Down Nationwide UAW Union Policy Forcing Employees to Object Annually to Political Expenditures
Hartford, CT (March 6, 2008) – A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge has heeded a Colt Manufacturing employee’s request to strike down a nationwide union policy intended to stonewall employees from obtaining a reduction of their forced union dues.
With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, George Gally, a nearly 50-year veteran Colt employee, originally filed unfair labor practice charges at the NLRB in March 2003. Gally challenged the United Auto Worker (UAW) union’s nationwide policy. The policy forced non-union members to object annually if they did not want to fund union political and other non-bargaining activities.
The ruling requires the UAW union to “cease and desist” from requiring employees to object annually, as well as notify all non-member employees across America that it will not subject them to this burdensome process. The UAW union must also post notices at certain union halls and publish a notice in a forthcoming “Solidarity” newsletter.
In the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court CWA v. Beck decision, the court affirmed that workers have the right to refrain from formal union membership but can still be forced to pay a reduced fee for union monopoly bargaining in their workplaces. But UAW officials have tried to hinder employees from getting their dues reduction by requiring them to renew their objections every year.
In issuing the ruling, Administrative Law Judge Joel Biblowitz noted that, “Further, the [union] Respondents do not require yearly renewals of union membership cards, dues authorization checkoff cards or notice of resignation from the union. Yearly renewals are only required of Beck objectors, and the Respondents have not satisfactorily explained this inconsistency.”
“UAW officials have fought tooth and nail to hamstring employees wishing to exercise their legal rights,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “This outrageous situation underscores why the best solution to the misuse of compulsory union dues is a Right to Work law. Ending forced unionism would make union affiliation and dues payment strictly voluntary.”
George Gally has endured 17 years of illegal conduct by UAW officials. In December 2003, ALJ Biblowitz awarded Gally nearly $31,000 in compensation plus interest for pay lost after he was illegally fired for non-payment of forced dues at the order of UAW Local 376 union officials in 1991. Subsequent to his damage award, Gally filed this separate unfair labor practice charge challenging the UAW union officials’ annual objection scheme.
Union Officials Balk at Election to Get Employees’ Names and Home Addresses
Leaders of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe are up in arms because Security, Police, and Fire Professionals of America union officials filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a representation election of their casino security personnel only to pull the plug at the last minute.
Meanwhile, SPFPA officials told The Morning Sun that they never had any intention of going through with the election:
"…the union simply wanted to get the list of names and addresses of
the casino security and surveillance personnel the union hopes to
organize."
Tribe representatives called the move a "manipulation" of the system, point out that two previous organizing attempts have failed, and question the NLRB’s jurisdiction over their employees in the first place.
Most likely, collecting employees’ personal information is geared at pressuring them individually to support unionization through a potential "card check" drive. Sadly, this situation shows that many times, when employees reject unionization, it’s just the beginning.
Compulsory Unionism Keeps Eating Away at Rust Belt Jobs
Columnist Thomas Sowell points out in an op-ed today the harmful effects of bad economic policies on job creation in "rust belt" states:
In short, the rust belts have been killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
He concludes:
Jobs are always disappearing. The big question is why they are
not being replaced by new jobs. Rust belt policies that drove out old
jobs also keep out new jobs.
Chief among these harmful policies is compulsory unionism. According to a National Institute for Labor Relations Research fact sheet, Right to Work states outperform forced unionism states, which include all of the rust belt, on a litany of economic growth indicators.
Most notably, with regard to job growth, non-farm private sector job growth in Right to Work states nearly doubled that of forced unionism states between 1996-2006. NILRR also notes that Real Personal Income growth also was nearly double in Right to Work states between 2001-2006.
Sounds like the golden goose has fled for greener pastures.
SEIU Dissident Ads Decry “Top-Down Leadership”
The internal drumbeat against SEIU chief Andy Stern for seeking the union’s "growth at any cost" is only growing louder, as articles in the NY Times and Wall Street Journal bear out.
The Times article in particular shows how union officials often sell out workers’ interests in exchange for a "card check" deal from an employer that will give them a toe hold in the workplace, and eventually the ability to compel dues from employees:
Michael Torres, a respiratory therapist at U.S.C. University Hospital
in Los Angeles, part of the Tenet Healthcare Corporation, said Mr.
Stern’s approach had hurt Tenet employees. He complained that union
leaders had sought to make a deal that called for not pushing for
pensions or retiree health coverage; in exchange Tenet would not fight
unionization of 23 facilities in Florida.
No wonder the dissention is reaching a fever pitch, with the group even running ads, brought to our attention by a reader, on the pro-forced unionism Daily Kos site decrying "top-down leadership."
California Seeks to One-Up Washington State by Forcibly Unionizing Grandmas
Following up on forced dues for foster parents in Washington State, another op-ed in the Seattle P-I this week says that the California Legislature wants to "unionize Grandma." The article states:
A bill pending in the Senate would create a union to organize family
members who provide child care for their kin and are paid by the state
so that mothers can work outside the home.
Furthermore:
Child-care providers who did not want to join the union would still
have to pay fees — likely in the same amount as the union dues.
Most disturbingly, this extension of compulsory unionism is part of a broader trend:
The move in California is part of a nationwide strategy by SEIU and the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Since
2005, governors in eight states have issued executive orders or taken
other action giving family child-care providers the right to unionize
and bargain as a group.
And in all of those states without a Right to Work law, those care providers must pay union dues. What a tell tale sign that this is all about the money that union officials must stoop to compelling payment of union dues from people taking care of their own families.
R.I.P.: William F. Buckley Jr. – Foe of Forced Unionism
Today’s regretful passing of commentator William F. Buckley Jr. reminds us of how Mr. Buckley stood up to compulsory unionism with help from the National Right to Work Foundation several decades back. George Leef details the fight in pages 160-162 of Free Choice for Workers: A History of the Right to Work Movement.
After American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union officials told Mr. Buckley to join the union and pay up if he wanted to voice his opinions over the airwaves, he fought back in the form of a Foundation-aided lawsuit.
Though the case was batted between the courts and National Labor Relations Board, it ultimately led the AFTRA union to stop requiring formal membership from employees. (However, it could still compel dues from employees.)
Despite this, Mr. Buckley voiced satisfaction at his case’s achievement. Mr. Leef cites:
Summing up his case, William F. Buckley Jr. wrote in his sydicated column, ‘Thanks to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which funded this case…employees are precisely not bound to obey the union’s rules any long, and the First Amendment has won a significant victory.’
NEA Union to Dump Up to $50 Million into ’08 Elections
According to The Hill, NEA union officials are gearing up for an effort to dump between $40-$50 million dollars, much of it in compulsory union dues, into the 2008 elections. NEA chief Reg Weaver leaves no doubt about it:
“We plan to be very aggressive,” said Reg Weaver, the NEA’s president.
Perhaps many teachers would be better off if the NEA union and its affiliates were not so aggressive. For instance, the Ohio branch of the NEA told St. Marys district school teacher Carol Katter to "change religions" when she asserted her right to divert her mandatory dues from political causes she disagrees with on religious grounds.
However, with help from the National Right to Work Foundation, Katter struck down an Ohio law preventing such "religious objectors" from diverting such forced dues to charity unless they belonged to certain state-approved religions.
"I was not going to give one cent to those causes," Katter told the Ohio media. "I know where NEA money goes, and I never wanted to be part of that."
Forced Union Dues for Foster Parents?
You heard it right. According to an op-ed just run by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Washington State is considering subjecting foster parents within the state to compulsory unionism, which could cause some serious problems. The piece cites:
If forced to join, I predict foster parents already fed up with the
system will depart in droves. If even 20 percent leave already thin
ranks, it will be a foster care disaster.
The author also brands the idea as a "beachhead," and that:
Once a precedent is set, it will be easy to expand the scope because virtually all children in foster care are special needs.
Sounds like union officials in Washington are once again using the legislature to expand their special privileges rather than soliciting voluntary support of those they seek to organize. Not to mention the fact that these are foster parents we’re talking about here.
