FoundationFoundation The bi-monthly newsletter of the National Right to Work ActionAction Legal Defense Foundation, Inc. Vol. XXIII, No. 6 8001 Braddock Road • Springfield, Virginia 22160 www.nrtw.org November/December 2003 workers have chosen increasingly to reject Foundation’s unionization. In res- ponse, union officials Anti-Top-Down have refocused their pri- orities towards organiz- Organizing Task ing employers and imposing unionization on employees from the Force at Full Tilt top down through devices known as “neu- orld Photo Litigation attacks trality and card check ide W agreements.” Under such schemes— AP/W “neutrality agreements” Even with federal labor law stacked in their favor, usually reached after a union organizers (like those pictured above at a recent and other tactics that targeted employer’s busi- UAW press conference) are bullying companies into ness is disrupted through impose forced unionism doing their dirty work. union picketing, threats, or comprehensive “cor- SPRINGFIELD, Va. — The National porate campaign” tactics involving Warnaco’s Altoona-based employees, as Right to Work Foundation’s litigation organized pressure from suppliers, the union’s recognition was based on a team has been inundated in recent stockholders, negative media coverage, “false and tainted” process. In fact, 60 months with legal aid requests relating and elected officials—employers feel percent of the Warnaco employees have to union officials’ aggressive roll-out of they have no choice but to agree to their broad program to impose union support a union’s efforts to impose see UNION ORGANIZERS, page 5 representation on thousands of compulsory unionism on workers. American workplaces without so much “Despite their rhetoric, union oper- as a vote of the employees. atives are less interested in building vol- Having already filed a half dozen untary support among rank-and-file IN THIS ISSUE high profile cases at the National Labor workers than in maintaining a steady Relations Board and one lawsuit in U.S. flow of compulsory dues,” said Found- District Court, Foundation attorneys ation President Mark Mix. 2 Machinist Union Must Honor are the leaders of a national effort to Religious Objections slow, and ultimately reverse, the over- whelming momentum behind what is Union operatives coerce Foundation Attorneys Beat widely recognized as Big Labor’s coer- 3 workers through abusive Union Fines Against Janitors cive organizing model for the future. Even though federal labor law is tilt- “card check” schemes ed in their favor, union officials are 4 Department of Labor Guts increasingly going “outside the box,” In one pending Foundation legal New Union Disclosure Regs using “top-down” organizing to bolster challenge, two employees of Warnaco their ranks and preserve their forced- Inc., in Altoona, Pa., are asking that Foundation Answers… What dues power. officials of the Union of Needletrades, 6 is “exclusive representation”? Appalled by the union corruption, Industrial, and Textile Employees political chicanery, and destroyed jobs (UNITE) union be stripped of their and businesses left in Big Labor’s wake, exclusive representation power over 2 Foundation Action November/December 2003 Machinist Union Must Honor Religious Objections Lockheed Martin employee found union’s agenda morally offensive ORLANDO, Fla. — A United States District forbidden by the Bible. He asserted his three-year religious liber- Court for the Middle right as a religious objector under Title ty battle and federal civil District of Florida against VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to rights lawsuit between an IAM Local 610. refrain from union activities and with- individual employee and “For years IAM union hold the payment of dues to the union, the International Asso- officials have been unfair- offering to send his union dues to a ciation of Machinists ly persecuting Robert mutually agreed-upon charity. (IAM) Local 610 has Beers because he put his Union officials refused his request and come to an end. orld Photo faith ahead of their radical informed Beers they would have him fired Robert Beers, an agenda,” said Stefan from his job if he refused to pay them. ide W employee at Lockheed Gleason, Vice President Beers paid the union under protest. Martin’s Cape Canaveral AP/W of the National Right to Air Force Station facility, Tom Buffenbarger’s IAM Work Legal Defense faced threats by union union waged a three- Foundation. “No one Union officials refused officials that he would be year legal battle against should be forced to sacri- fired from his job (and Robert Beers to crush fice their faith in order to to grant religious lose his health insurance his religious objection. keep their job.” accommodation while his now-deceased teenage son was in cancer treatment) unless he paid fees to a union that he Worker objected to union Foundation attorneys originally believes is deeply involved in activities hierarchy’s radical social filed the religious discrimination that violate his sincerely held religious charges for Beers against the union in convictions. agenda the fall of 2000 with the EEOC. The After the Equal Employment EEOC found in his favor and attempt- Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Beers’ sincerely held religious ed to persuade the union’s officials to announced its agreement that the beliefs prevented him from supporting agree to a settlement. However, IAM union had violated federal law, National the union’s militant ideological agenda, Local 610’s lawyers thumbed their Right to Work Foundation attorneys particularly its support for abortion and noses at the EEOC offer and continued filed the federal suit for Beers in the homosexuality, which he believes are to oppose Beers’ religious objection, forcing him to sue in federal court. When contacted, Beers reported that he has now been provided a religious Foundation Action accommodation by the union. That accommodation is that he is not required to support financially -the union. Rev. Fred Fowler Chairman, Board of Trustees Reed Larson Executive Committee Chairman Mark Mix President Federal law trumps Stefan Gleason Vice President and Editor in Chief Ray LaJeunesse, Jr. Vice President, Legal Director Right to Work protections Alicia Auerswald Vice President on “federal enclaves” Virginia Smith Secretary Although Florida has a highly- Distributed by the popular Right to Work law that allows National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc. employees to cut off dues payments to 8001 Braddock Road, Springfield, Virginia 22160 www.nrtw.org • 1-800-336-3600 unwanted unions, Cape Canaveral is considered an exclusive “federal enclave” The Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees subject to provisions in federal labor whose human or civil rights have been violated by abuses of compulsory unionism. All contributions law granting union officials the power to the Foundation are tax deductible under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. to compel the payment of dues as a job condition. November/December 2003 Foundation Action 3 Foundation Attorneys Beat Union Fines Against Janitors Union officials imposed confiscatory fines or chores to punish non-striking workers LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Settling a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaint based on the work of National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877 has agreed to rescind fines that were illegally levied against 32 Los Angeles-area janitors. The union hierarchy levied the fines because the janitors dared to continue working to support their families dur- ing the widely publicized “Justice for Janitors” strike in April 2000. In a sim- ilar 1997 case, SEIU Local 1877 sent threatening letters to janitors in Oakland, California, demanding that they pay outrageous fines—some as orld Photo high as $3,000—for working during ide W the 1997 strike. Foundation attorneys similarly forced union officials to AP/W rescind the illegal fines through legal After fining 32 janitors for refusing to abandon their jobs during the so-called action. “Justice for Janitors” strike, the SEIU union must now rescind the illegal fines. “This settlement is a victory for those workers who have the courage to such as scrubbing floors at the union As part of the settlement, SEIU Local stand up and put their families ahead of hall. The intent of the fines was to pun- 1877 must also post a notice alerting all the demands of a self-serving union ish those who dared to defy union edicts. workers in the bargaining unit to their bureaucracy,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice “It’s ridiculous,” Rose Lugo, one of right to refrain from formal union President of the National Right to Work the janitors involved, told the Pasadena membership and pay a reduced fee cov- Foundation. “Union officials waged a Star-News. “I think the union should ering only the cost of activities directly three-year NLRB battle to retaliate let the people decide on their own related to collective bargaining—rights against the very employees whose inter- whether to strike or not. Some of us established by the Foundation-won ests they claim to represent.” couldn’t afford to strike.” Supreme Court decision in Communi- The janitors are employees of cations Workers v. Beck as well as General American Building Maintenance Janitor- Motors v. NLRB. ial Services Company and two other Union bosses cannot lawfully Despite these rulings, union officials janitorial services in Southern California often fail to inform workers (or lie to which faced a crippling strike in 2000. keep workers in the dark them outright) about their right to refrain from formal, full-dues-paying Because Foundation attorneys were union membership. Janitors were targeted for able to establish that the janitors had “As demonstrated by these vindictive never been informed of their rights to bully tactics, SEIU union bosses have a staying on the job refrain from formal union member- perverted view of exactly what constitutes ship—a status which exempts employ- ‘Justice for Janitors,’” stated Gleason.