Mix
LEVITTOWN, NY (Legal Newsline) - An automobile parts manufacturing worker petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to halt an unpopular local union from collecting dues and representing him and his coworkers.
Sterling Instruments, Inc., employee Charlie Shannon filed unfair labor practice charges on behalf of himself and some coworkers against the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine, and Furniture Workers-Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA) Local 463 union.
IUE-CWA Local 463 union officials no longer enjoy majority support from the employees after a majority of them signed a petition to remove the union from their workplace. However, union officials continue to negotiate a new bargaining agreement with the employer.
The NLRB regional office in Brooklyn found that IUE-CWA Local 463 union officials were illegally demanding forced union dues payments from the workers because the contract's forced-dues clause with the company was not valid. Additionally, union officials never informed workers of their rights to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership and from paying for union boss political activities or member-only events.
The workers are seeking a refund of the dues illegally seized from their paychecks, plus interest.
The union, meanwhile, is threatening to call a strike against the company, even though numerous employees have already resigned their union membership.
"These workers have made it clear: They want nothing to do with the union," said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work. "These employees, and all American workers, should be free to negotiate their own terms and conditions of employment, and be rewarded on their individual merit, if they so choose.
"Union bosses will stop at nothing for forced union dues, including exercising illegal bargaining powers over the workers.
"It's cases like these that prove that New York desperately needs Right to Work protections for its workers."