When a company official told Perfecseal, Inc. employee John McHenry and his coworkers that the only way out of a union-controlled pension fund was to “quit, be fired, or die,” they fought back.

With help from Right to Work attorneys the employees forced Teamsters Local 14-M officials to stop requiring the pension fund contributions, though union officials stopped short of returning the pension fund money that John and others already contributed.

Like many employees, John continues to feel intimidated at his workplace. But when one company official said John’s “name was mud” and claimed that “corporate” was “pissed” at him for standing up for his legal rights, John refused to back down.

In a paper union officials will undoubtedly ignore, Michael Oswalt, a graduate of the AFL-CIO’s “Law Student Union Summer” program, observed an obvious truth: unions in Right to Work states are more accountable to their members because they have to be.

Citing AFL-CIO founder Samuel Gomper’s own opposition of forced unionism, Oswalt writes that “simple logic” shows that when forced dues are eliminated union officials must be more accountable to the concerns of individual members:

Indeed, simple logic suggests that when dues are guaranteed, attentive member servicing may not be, cultivating a frustrated and apathetic rank and file. The right-to-work environment, alternatively, stands in sharp relief. Where dues are linked to member satisfaction, leadership’s responsiveness embodies a special urgency…

In other words, if Oswalt’s former bosses at the AFL-CIO were really concerned with what is best for rank-and-file workers, they would support a National Right to Work Act.

To re-introduce ourselves to readers that are well familiar with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, and to introduce ourselves to those that are not, we recently produced this video. Be sure to check back at www.nrtw.org and this blog in the months to come for additional video profiles about employees helped by the Foundation.

As the National Institute for Labor Relations Research documents, every year there are hundreds of incidents of union violence, and countless more go unreported. However, since only a tiny percentage of them end up in arrests or convictions, people often have trouble grasping the scope of the problem.

This video (about a campaign of union violence and intimidation surrounding a strike in Westminster, VA) demonstrates how emotionally damaging such intimidation is to rank-and-file workers who refuse to toe the union line. The retaliation in this case took the form of Godfather-esque bullying. If only union violence was Hollywood fiction.

Film score violinist Sai-Ly Acosta and her fellow musicians fought back last week against an ugly campaign of union intimidation.

After Sai-Ly filed federal charges with help from National Right to Work attorneys, union officials immediately backed off from their threats to have dissenting musicians arrested and the musicians were allowed to rehearse with the orchestra for the time being.

However, other eyewitnesses said that union operatives posted signs throughout the building that read “Full Members Only,” and union operatives have harassed and intimidated the dissenting musicians, calling them “scabs.”

One musician even held there were so many of the signs posted in the building that she was surprised that there wasn’t a separate bathroom for those who exercised their Beck rights.

The Wall Street Journal’s related article about Right to Work attorneys’ victory for employees earlier this month says:

Organized labor, which has long criticized the (National Labor Relations) board under the Bush administration, charges that the recent activity is a partisan push, following several decisions reversing rulings made during the Clinton administration.

You’ve gotta be kidding me. Additionally, the agency has dropped the ball on these Right to Work Foundation-assisted cases.

Finally, the article fails to recognize that the Dana/Metaldyne decision doesn’t even protect the very employees that brought the case! One thing’s for sure, America’s independent-mined employees deserve better than they’ve gotten on the whole from the Bush NLRB.

Jerry Rasmussen and Carla Crandall (along with their coworkers) forced the UFCW Local 4 to sign a settlement after union officials tried to bar them from exercising their legal rights at a Safeway in Polson, Montana.

National Right to Work attorneys helped the two through their battle against illegal termination threats and forced dues seizures after union officials denied their requests to resign from formal membership.

The Associated Press covered the story:

"I got a hold of the (National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation) attorneys, and they said, ‘That’s absolutely not right. They have to acknowledge those Beck rights and let you be a nonmember,’" Rasmussen said.

Although the settlement requires UFCW Local 4 officials to reimburse the employees of their forced dues plus interest and to inform them of their legal right to resign from formal membership, it is an incremental victory in the broad fight against compulsory unionism in Montana.

Until Montana has a Right to Work law that makes the payment of union dues strictly volunatary, this type of intimidation will likely continue throughout the Treasure State.