Worker Advocate Launches Legal Task Force to Protect Indiana Right to Work Freedom

Law prevents union officials from extracting union dues from workers as a condition of employment

Washington, DC (February 2, 2012) – The National Right to Work Foundation announced today that it is launching a legal task force aimed at protecting Indiana’s newly-enacted Right to Work law.

Union officials publicly floated the idea of challenging the law in Indiana's courts before the law was even passed by the Indiana state senate.

Indiana is the nation's 23rd Right to Work state after the state senate passed the bill and Governor Mitch Daniels signed the bill into law on Wednesday.

Foundation attorneys have successfully defended state Right to Work laws in the past, including Oklahoma's. The task force has already examined reported union lines of attack and determined that Indiana’s Right to Work law is on sound legal ground.

"Union bosses want to undo what thousands of Hoosier citizens have worked hard for over the past decade," said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. "Because union partisans cannot win the hearts and minds of Indiana's workers and voters, they seek to have the courts strike down Indiana’s popular Right to Work law for them."

Read the entire press release here.

Union Forced Dues Threats against WRTV Anchor Highlight Need for Indiana Right to Work Law

Union hit with federal labor board charges for demanding TV anchor pay union dues despite lack of valid contract between her employer and the union

Indianapolis, IN (May 19, 2011) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, WRTV anchor Patricia Shepherd has filed federal unfair labor practice charges against the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) union.

Shepherd’s charges allege that AFTRA officials demanded she pay dues despite the fact that she is not a union member and the union has not had a contract with her employer for the past two years.

Because Indiana lacks a Right to Work law, employees can be forced to pay union dues for the purposes of workplace bargaining just to get or keep a job. In recent months, Indiana legislators were considering a law to make union dues payments strictly voluntary, but Governor Mitch Daniels and House Speaker Brian Bosma, despite strong majorities on record in favor of a Right to Work bill in both chambers of the state legislature, ultimately killed the legislation.

Click here to read the whole thing . . . 

Last week, Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work, pointed out in Investor's Business Daily that the real issue in the ongoing battles between Big Labor and reform-minded public officials in various states across the country is getting lost in the union bosses' self-serving rhetoric.

As Mix notes, given the media coverage of the battle in Wisconsin:

Americans learning about organized labor's battles in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and other states from TV, radio and newspaper reports may understandably be confused about what is at stake, especially if they have no personal experience with unions themselves. From afar, it's easy to draw the conclusion that public employees' right to join a union is at stake.

Of course a worker's right to join a union is not the issue at all. The real issue at stake is that Big Labor enjoys numerous government-granted special privileges at the expense of workers' individual rights:

...What reform-minded elected officials are seeking to curtail, and in
some cases even abolish, is government union chiefs' legal power to
force public servants into a union as a condition of employment.

Under the current labor laws of nearly half of the states, government union officials have been explicitly authorized to force all public employees in a workplace to pay union dues or be fired, as long as a majority of their fellow employees (among those expressing an opinion) support unionization.

Such forced-unionism laws, which Big Labor is now fighting furiously to keep on the books in the face of increasingly intense public opposition, actually trample on, rather than protect, employees' freedom to make personal decisions about unionism.

And that's the point. So next time you hear union bosses like Richard Trumka shouting about "protecting workers' rights," it's important to keep in mind that what he really means is "protecting union bosses' special powers."

In an editorial yesterday, the Wall Street Journal made both the moral and economic case for states to end forced unionism by passing Right to Work laws:

Contrary to much union rhetoric, right-to-work laws don't ban or bust unions. They simply grant individual workers the right to join or not to join, even once a workplace is organized by a union. Workers who decline to join the union can't be forced to have dues taken out of their paycheck and thus used to finance union political campaigns. Most right-to-work states are in the South and West, and only Oklahoma has adopted this freedom to choose in the last 20 years.

Right-to-work states outperform forced-union states in almost every measurable category of worker well-being. A new study in the Cato Journal by economist Richard Vedder finds that from 2000 to 2008 some 4.7 million Americans moved from forced-union to right-to-work states.

The study also found that from 1977 through 2007 there was "a very strong and highly statistically significant relationship between right-to-work laws and economic growth." Right-to-work states experienced a 23% faster rise in per capita income over that period. The two regions that have lost the most jobs in recent years, the once-industrial Northeast and Midwest, are mostly forced-union states.

These arguments demonstrate why poll after poll shows that 80 percent of Americans -- even rank-and-file union members -- support the Right to Work principle. Unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal warns, politicians who claim they agree could instead appease the union bosses:

[Indiana Governor Mitch] Daniels adds that the lack of a right-to-work law "does hold us back economically. There is no doubt about it." He estimates that when competing with Southern states for businesses, "a very large number—perhaps as many as a quarter—of the deals we don't get a shot at are for just this reason."

This damage has motivated Indiana Republicans, who now control both legislature chambers, to announce that they want to pass a right-to-work law. Unions immediately went to Defcon 1, Democrats are up in arms, and Republicans could yet buckle under this union pressure. Even Mr. Daniels, who has stood up to union opposition in the past, seems hesitant. He told the Indianapolis Star that right to work "may be worth a look," but he added it "is not on my agenda." He's worried that the issue so antagonizes unions that it could derail the rest of his legislative agenda.

We hope Republicans don't flinch. Right-to-work laws make states more economically competitive, but the bigger issue is about individual rights. Workers should have the right to join a union but also the right not to. Indiana and other states with new Republican majorities have a rare opportunity to pass a major reform that will reduce union power, help to attract new jobs, and liberate workers from union coercion.

Read the rest of the editorial here (subscription required).

As Indiana's state legislators discuss the merits of passing Right to Work protections for Hoosier workers, a group of scholars released a study last week confirming (pdf) workers and their families in Right to Work states benefit from workplace freedom in a very tangible way. From a press release announcing their findings:

Improving the per-capita income of Indiana workers and creating more job opportunities for Hoosiers would be among the major benefits of Indiana becoming the 23rd state to pass a right-to-work (RTW) law, according to research released today by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. In addition, statewide voter polling results show Hoosiers favoring adoption of RTW by a 3-to-1 margin.

Dr. Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economist, and his colleagues report in the study (Right-to-Work and Indiana's Economic Future) that if Indiana had adopted RTW in 1977, per-capita income would have been $2,925 higher -- or $11,700 higher for a family of four - by 2008. Looking forward (projecting the same growth rate in the next 10 years after adjusting for inflation), passage of a RTW law in 2011 would raise per capita income by $968 -- or $3,872 for a family of four -- by 2021.

The scholars conclude that a Right to Work law would benefit workers with greater job growth and real personal income. These results mirror the thorough research conducted by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR), which has found that families benefit from Right to Work laws with more job availability and higher expendable income. No wonder workers and their families are seeking greater workplace freedom, leaving forced unionism states in droves.

With all the controversy surrounding card check legislation, it's worth talking to workers who've actually experienced the procedure first-hand. With that in mind, the National Right to Work Foundation interviewed several employees who endured intimidation, harassment and coercion at the hands of union organizers during an actual card check drive. After UAW organizers forced their way into the workplace through the coercive card check scheme, the workers forced a secret ballot decertification vote (using a precedent won by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys) and tossed out the unwanted union.

Here's the video:

School Bus Drivers File Charges against AFSCME Union for Illegal Threats, Dues Collections

Lack of Right to Work law leads to ugly union abuse of workers

Indianapolis, IN (April 24, 2009)– With free legal aid from staff attorneys at the National Right to Work Foundation, three bus drivers have filed federal unfair labor practice charges against union bosses for an illegal scheme to bully nonmember employees into paying full union dues.

Barry Hickman, Connie Hickman, and Thomas Spencer II drive school buses for First Student, where they are forced to accept the “representation” of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3826. In March and April 2008, Barry and Connie Hickman sent two letters each to AFSCME Council 62, the regional body which handles the local’s objection policy, objecting to pay for non-bargaining costs they could not be required to financially support. Spencer sent a similar objection letter in May.

Because Indiana is not yet a Right to Work state, nonmembers may be fired from their jobs for refusal to pay compulsory fees to a union with which they want nothing to do. However, union officials may not lawfully compel nonmembers to pay for activities like political activism, lobbying, and member-only events.

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Read the full release here.

Using card check, UAW operatives muscled their way into a plant in Albion, Indiana. The courageous working mom featured below joined with her coworkers to exercise legal rights won by the National Right to Work Foundation to throw the union back out.

Check out the National Right to Work Committee's latest video on one working mom's encounter with professional UAW organizers:

Previous Right to Work videos on the UAW's abusive card check drive in Albion are available here and here.

Sonoma County grape pickers aren't the only workers facing prolonged union occupation - an employee decertification election aimed at ejecting International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 from a Northwest Indiana plant has also been repeatedly stalled by frivolous union blocking charges:

Dozens of workers at the Edw. C. Levy Co., a slag processing subcontractor at Mittal Steel's Burns Harbor plant, are involved in a lengthy and nasty dispute with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150.

The workers claim Local 150 is purposely delaying their right to an election that could, presumably, rule out the union as their representative. The workers, who voted out Local 150 in 2007, claim that its repeated filing of unfair labor practice complaints is strictly to delay a new election, again presumably to vote in another union.

"All we want is a vote," said Jim Bezler, a Levy Co. mechanic for three years and one of the few workers who would allow me to print his name.

Like the Sonoma grape pickers, workers in Indiana are being punished for an alleged company malfeasance despite the employees' repeated grassroots campaigns to kick out the unwanted union: 

The Levy Co. workers I spoke with disagree, claiming Local 150 is taking full advantage of the NLRB's policy by filing charge after charge against the Levy Co.

"They keep pushing back any hope for us to have an election," said Alvin Johnson III, a mechanic from Hebron. "And now they just filed six more charges which could drag this out even longer, possibly to September."

The union bosses, of course, are only interested in retaining their forced dues and monopoly bargaining privileges. Moreover, evidence suggests union operatives have engaged in vandalsm, including actions which could seriously harm independent-minded workers:

Some of the workers also claimed that Local 150 supporters have sabotaged company equipment, such as dumping materials in hydraulic tanks and removing bolts from transmissions.

"I've seen the damage first-hand," Bezler said.

Other workers told me their personal property has been vandalized, including slashed tires, allegedly by Local 150 supporters.

While we applaud these workers for stepping forward, many employees don't have the time or legal expertise to deal to take on union lawyers and union thugs. If you or your coworkers need legal assistance, please contact the National Right to Work Foundation. We provide free aid to workers across the country who have been victimized by compulsory unionism. 

In this new special National Right to Work Committee video report, Dana Corporation employees in Albion, Indiana, share their stories of harassment and intimidation by UAW union operatives during a militant card check organizing drive. The workers discuss how union organizers specifically targeted and ramped up their coercive tactics against female employees.

As one worker explains in the video, “People in the UAW will call you their sister or their brother. I never treated any of my brothers and sisters that way.”

UAW union organizers were able to collect a majority of signatures after weeks of pressure on the employees. Thanks to a precedent won by attorneys with the National Right to Work Foundation, the employees eventually forced an election and defeated the UAW union hierarchy.

Workers will not have this secret ballot option if the union-label Congress repays its billion-dollar campaign debt to Big Labor by passing the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill.

The National Right to Work Foundation provides free legal aid to employees so they can fight back against union coercion and abuse.

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