Army Wives Driver Wins over $55k in Lost Wages After Teamster Union Boss Blacklisting

Teamster union bosses’ ugly retaliation prevents employee from making a living

Washington, DC (March 17, 2011) – An ABC Studios movie/television driver has won over $55,000 in lost income after Teamster union officials refused to allow him to do his job for nearly a year.

National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys helped the driver win the case before a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge in Charleston, South Carolina.

Teamster Local 509 union officials currently enjoy exclusive bargaining privileges with ABC Studios in Charleston – and thus have a monopoly bargaining agreement with ABC that forces workers to go through Teamster Local 509’s hiring hall in order to obtain a job.

However, because Local 509 union members were working on other television and movie productions, Thomas Coghill – who was from Wilmington, North Carolina and a member of Teamster Local 391 – worked on the set of the Charleston-based Army Wives television series. Coghill worked during the show’s first two seasons beginning in 2008 as a makeup truck driver.

However, as more Local 509 union members became available to work on the production of Army Wives, a dispute over who should be eligible to work on the set of Army Wives erupted between various Teamster union officials and Coghill was removed from Local 509’s “Movie Referral List” because he was not a member of Local 509. Meanwhile, Local 509 union members continue to receive preferential treatment in job placement on the set of Army Wives.

Read the entire release here.

Regular Freedom@Work readers may remember the plight of Mandy Diasselliss, a Santa Monica-based studio tutor whose career helping child actors stay on top of their studies is threatened by compulsory unionism. The case underscores the reality of the union boss stranglehold in Hollywood.

Union operatives from the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 884 had Diasselliss fired for not joining the union despite the fact she actually tried to become a member (joining is just what you DO in Hollywood), her excellent workplace track record, and the fact that her temporary employment status meant she could not be compelled to join IATSE Local 884 in the first place.

The Foundation's original unfair labor practice charges challenged this illegality, seeking her immediate reinstatement as well as any back pay owed since her illegal termination.

Foundation attorneys have subsequently amended the unfair labor practice charges, alleging that IATSE operatives also limited access to a union hiring hall to protect existing union members and exclude newer employees (like Diasselliss) from obtaining employment opportunities, even though they would be working under the same union contract. Union members received preferential access to the hiring hall to find work, whereas nonunion employees were denied access to similar opportunities, effectively freezing them out of the local job market.

Unfortunately, this latest development isn't particularly surprising. As Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason noted in the original press release, “Union bosses in the entertainment industry have routinely ignored federal labor laws in an effort to maintain monopoly control of who is hired and who is fired."Freedom@Work will continue to post updates on the Foundation's ongoing efforts to challenge this coercive union scheme.