Posts tagged compulsory union fees
Victory for Workers’ Rights: Liberty Justice Center Defends New Jersey Plumber Against Union that Illegally Withheld Money from His Paycheck
November 18, 2024 // After learning about these constitutional rights under Janus v. AFSCME, Nicolo Giangrasso—a New Jersey plumber employed by the Hamilton Township School District—resigned his union membership and requested the union stop deducting dues from his paychecks. The union refused, falsely claiming that the Supreme Court’s decision only applied to “union dues” and therefore did not apply to Mr. Giangrasso—because the union called the money it illegally took from his paychecks “assessments” instead. On August 1, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit against UA Local 9 on Mr. Giangrasso’s behalf, arguing that it does not matter whether the union labels the money withheld from an employee’s paycheck “dues” or “assessments,” because the Supreme Court held in Janus that neither dues, agency fees, “nor any other form of payment to a public-sector union” can be withheld from employees who have not agreed to the withholding—and Mr. Giangrasso had not agreed.
Federal Lawsuit Hits Guards Union of America for Illegally Forcing DC-Based Security Guard to Pay for Union Politics
April 19, 2024 // Rosa Crawley, a DC-based security guard employed by Master Security, has just hit the International Guards Union of America (IGUA) Local 160 with a federal lawsuit, which maintains that full union dues, including dues for union political activities, are being illegally deducted from her paycheck. Crawley filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys. Crawley, who with her coworkers provides security services to the Department of Homeland Security’s “Nebraska Avenue Complex,” seeks to enforce her rights under the 1988 Right to Work Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision. The Court held in Beck that union officials cannot force workers who have abstained from union membership to pay union dues or fees for any expenses not directly germane to contract negotiations. Nonmember workers who exercise their Beck rights are also entitled to an independent audit of the union’s finances and a breakdown of how union officials spend forced contributions.
Liberty Justice Center Defends Janus Rights in Alaska
October 6, 2023 // In the years since the Supreme Court issued its ruling, multiple states have passed laws to make it more difficult for employees to know and exercise their rights under Janus. In addition, multiple lower courts have refused to enforce the “affirmative consent” requirements set forth by the Supreme Court when employees have sought to enforce their Janusrights by alleging that they did not consent to pay unions freely or knowingly. “Unions have convinced states, government employers, and the lower courts to ignore one of the most important parts of the Janus decision,” said Liberty Justice Center Senior Counsel Jeffrey Schwab. “The Supreme Court must intervene and make clear that it meant what it said in Janus—workers must be fully informed of their rights before the union can claim any of their paycheck.” In their amicus brief, Mark Janus, the Liberty Justice Center, and the Illinois Policy Institute urge the Supreme Court to hear Alaska v. Alaska Employees Association and affirm that the Court’s ruling in Janus means that money cannot be withheld from employees on behalf of unions unless and until the government has clear evidence of the employees’ free and knowing consent.
Frank Ricci: Five Years After Janus
June 30, 2023 // Following the decision and decreased national interest, laws meant to obscure union members’ rights have been adopted. As a result, public sector union management across the country has hesitated to inform employees of their rights, fearing they will receive charges from local labor boards. At the state level, unions have used their political clout to ban captive audience meetings where the employer shares their position on a topic and to bar management even from attending union orientation sessions. This allows the unions to utilize so-called “dark patterns” — techniques that lock members into deliberately deceptive contracts designed to deprive them of their rights.
OPT-OUT WINDOWS JUST ANOTHER WAY UNIONS FLOUT JANUS RULING
February 7, 2023 // Determining when and how to exercise their right to be free of a union is the prerogative of the workers, not the union, elected lawmakers or unelected bureaucrats. Nor is it within the purview of lower courts to limit rights only recently affirmed by the Supreme Court. Moreover, what the unions don’t realize is that, by denying workers their constitutional rights, they alienate the very people they so virtuously claim to represent.
NLRB Rejects USW Union Boss Attempt to Impose Contract Workers Voted Down to Block Election to Remove Union
November 30, 2022 // Steelworkers union officials attempted to wield anti-worker “contract bar” to trap workers in union they oppose, using union contract workers twice rejected With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Kerry Hunsberger and her coworkers at Latrobe Specialty Metals Company have scored a victory in their effort to vote United Steelworkers (USW) union officials out of their facility. Hunsberger and her coworkers are challenging USW officials’ secret “ratification” of a union contract that workers had overwhelmingly voted down twice, and union officials’ contention that the employees should be barred from exercising their right to oust the union because of that contract. A decision from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Regional Director in Pittsburgh now orders a union “decertification election” to be held among Hunsberger and her colleagues on December 6. In August, Hunsberger submitted to the NLRB a petition backed by the requisite number of her colleagues to trigger such a vote, but USW union bosses dragged their feet and argued that a non-statutory NLRB policy, the so-called “contract bar,” should block the employees’ right to vote because a contract was in place.
How a Liberal State Defies the First Amendment
July 12, 2022 // Frank Ricci — a retired firefighter and former president of the New Haven Firefighters Local 825, and now the Yankee Institute’s Fellow of Labor & Special Initiatives — says that opt-out windows “equate to a dues grab where the union picks the pockets of their workers who are trying to leave.” Besides the money, it’s about power: The “small print of membership cards,” Ricci says, “are designed to trap the worker into membership.” The tactics result in “defying the Janus decision and increasing the union’s political power.” Michael Costanza, Constitution State Educators, Christina Corvello,
Right to Work Allies Won’t Be Gagged For Now
March 6, 2022 // Extended debates, otherwise known as filibusters, enable Right to Work advocates and other grassroots citizen groups to block special-interest legislation until an alerted public can defeat it directly.