Wisconsin AFSCME Union Bosses Face Federal Charges for Illegally Seizing Forced Dues for Politics
Wisconsin needs Right to Work law to protect workers from forced unionism abuses
Milwaukee, WI (March 16, 2011) – A U.S. Bank customer service and support employee has filed federal charges against a local union after local union officials illegally attempted to force him and his colleagues into full-dues-paying union membership.
Peter Quinones of Milwaukee filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Tuesday with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.
After American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 777 union officials were granted monopoly bargaining privileges over approximately 300 U.S. Bank employees, Quinones sent a letter to union officials stating that he was exercising his right under National Right to Work Foundation-won Supreme Court precedent in Communication Workers v. Beck to refrain from full dues paying union membership.
Because Wisconsin is a forced unionism state, workers who refrain from formal union membership can still be forced to pay a certain amount of union dues, but cannot be compelled to pay the portion of union dues used for the union’s political, lobbying, and member-only activities.
Despite his letter, AFSCME Local 777 union officials continued to extract full union dues from his paycheck. After Quinones filed an unfair labor practice charge, union officials still refused to honor his request to exercise his legal rights.
Comments
Thank you I sent the following to AFSCME
I have been going around and around with these people for years.
I am employed by the State of (left Blank) . I have union dues extracted from my pay even thought I am not a union member. I have been doing some research into the Beck Decision and have found that there has been some recent case law that you need to be aware of.
Worker Advocate Urges Labor Board to Affirm Right to Object to Subsidizing Union Politics in Languishing Cases
Thu, 01/13/2011 - 13:03 — Anthony Riedel
Worker Advocate Urges Labor Board to Affirm Right to Object to Subsidizing Union Politics in Languishing Cases
Numerous cases before NLRB lay dormant as workers suffer from union policies designed to discourage objections to paying full union dues
Washington, DC (January 13, 2011) – The National Right to Work Foundation is urging the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to promptly resolve four cases almost identical to one decided last year by the Board as independent-minded workers wait for a resolution.
The Foundation – the nation’s premier advocate on behalf of workers who suffer from the abuses of compulsory unionism – scored a legal victory in August 2010 for workers who were subjected to a burdensome machinist union boss policy requiring employees to annually renew their objection to supporting union politics and other non-bargaining expenses or be converted back to paying full union dues.
The NLRB in Washington, DC determined that the machinist union’s annual objection requirement for workers who choose to refrain from union membership is illegal under Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court precedent upheld in Communications Workers v. Beck (1988).Under Beck, nonmember employees in states without Right to Work laws cannot be compelled to pay for union politics, lobbying, and member-only events.
Currently it is AFSCME practice to send out what is called a “Fair Share Packet” in the month of December with a deadline imposed by AFSCME in the month of January to have your objection letters in by. As you can see by the court rulings there is no annual objection requirement. The Beck decision also makes something else very clear. Objectors do not have to pay for union member only activities.
I received the report from AFSCME’s accountants last year and it only breaks down the expenditures by “Chargeable” and “non-chargeable” The non-chargeable do not include the cost of union meetings, food purchased by the union for MEMBERS only at the meetings, the cost of Members only seminars and conferences as well as the cost of things like members only union steward training or union representative training. All of these monies by law have to be returned as well. I will be sending this e-mail to both the union local president for security and the vice president of the non-security as well as several other state employees and my congressperson.