Welcome. What a year 2014 has been for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation as it continued to assist workers in the battle against forced unionism abuses, achieving big victories at state and federal agencies all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Early in the year in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Foundation staff attorneys assisted several Volkswagen workers in defending their vote to remain free from United Autoworker union boss control, despite the company and even foreign union bosses colluding to stack the deck against the workers. Meanwhile, workers in Michigan made amazing progress in defending America’s newest Right to Work law from frivolous union boss lawsuits and other schemes to circumvent the law. In fact, four Foundation-assisted workers successfully defended the state’s private-sector Right to Work law in federal court. Meanwhile, three Foundation-assisted public school employees in won a state agency judge’s recommendation to strike down teacher union bosses’ “annual objection” scheme meant to keep public school workers from exercising their rights under Michigans public-sector Right to Work law. Foundation attorneys also assisted Indiana Solicitor General Tom Fisher in briefing and preparing for oral arguments defending Indiana’s Right to Work law at the Indiana Supreme Court. Two Indiana workers also filed an amicus brief challenging union lawyers’ dubious claims about the law. In November, the court unanimously upheld the law, which protects Hoosier State workers’ rights to refrain from union membership and dues payments. At the U.S. Supreme Court, Illinois homecare providers struck down a forced unionization-by-government-fiat scheme pushed by former Governors Rod Blagojevich and Pat Quinn and Service Employees International Union bosses. The Court ruled that individuals who indirectly receive state subsidies based on their clientele cannot be forced to pay compulsory union fees. Building on that precedent, the Court on the very next day cleared the path for 50,000 home childcare providers in Michigan to receive a refund of millions of dollars of union dues illegally taken during a now-defunct unionization scheme. Moreover, home-based childcare and personal care providers in Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts, and elsewhere continue with Foundation attorneys’ assistance in challenging forced union schemes in their respective states. Speaking of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court unanimously struck down President Barack Obamas controversial purported recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed a brief with Jeanette Geary, a worker who is receiving free legal assistance from Foundation staff attorneys in a case pending before the Board, opposing the illegal recess appointments. And finally, public-sector and transportation workers across the country are seeking to roll back union bosses’ forced dues powers and expand workers’ rights to refrain from bankrolling union boss politics. In its 2012 Foundation-won Knox v. SEIU ruling, the Supreme Court struck down an affirmative objection requirement for special union assessments. The Court there indicated that it was ready to reassess whether union bosses forced dues powers, which it called something of an anomaly, include the power to use in any circumstances an opt-out system for the collection of fees levied to cover nonchargeable expenses. Responding to that suggestion, county employees in California and several airline workers from Texas and Maryland have filed class-action lawsuits that seek to expand the Knox precedent to apply to all instances when public-sector workers and workers subject to the Railway Labor Act refrain from union membership. 2014 was quite a year for worker freedom, but there is still more battles to fight in the coming year. I hope to update you on even more victories for American workers in 2015 and beyond. For more information about the Foundation and its cases, visit N R T W (dot) O R G. Thanks for tuning in.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 22:32:33 +0000
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