New York Employees Stand Up to Union Officials False Claims About Forced-Union Dues
Jose Nino
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The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation reports that a former employee of the New Hyde Park, NY Stop & Shop chain has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 464A union. The former employee, John Smith, reports that the union officials informed that he could only leave the union by quitting his job.
This false claim violates employee rights under federal law. The charge was filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), while the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation provided free legal aid to the former employee, John Smith.
Smith became a member of the UFCW in November 2018 once he gained employment at Stop & Shop due to his manager telling him that joining a union is a condition of employment at the store branch.
Additionally, Smith’s charge recounts how in 2019 he started asking UFCW officials how to resign from the union. According to Smith’s grievance, the first union agent whom he approached simply stated that he had to resign from his job in order to terminate his union membership.
Smith pressed on and asked to see a “union constitution.” He went to discuss with another union official about his membership status and was also told that his employment was contingent upon his membership in the union.
The former employee of Stop & Shop is asking the NLRB to file a complaint against the union for its violation of federal law. According to precedents established by the NLRB, union agents are obligated to inform employees of their right to withdraw from union membership. Additionally, NLRB precedents coming from the Supreme Court decision in CWA v. Beck —which the Foundation won— require union agents to advise workers of their right to pay reduced unions fees as a nonmember.
Other employees in the New York City area and across the nation have received Foundation legal aid to press charges against the UFCCW in recent months.
Two employees at Plattdeutsche Home Society retirement home in Franklin Square, NY— Beverley Pryce and Carolee Buckley— pressed unfair labor practice charges against UFCW Local 2013 in May because the union representatives failed to provide them with the legally-mandated financial analysis of the reduced fees that they are obligated to pay as nonmembers.
National Right to Work President Mark Mix commented on these events:
Once again UFCW union bosses have been caught violating the rights of the very workers they claim to represent.
Mix added, “The increasing number of charges bring into sharp focus the campaign of coercion and misinformation that UFCW officials are perpetrating against rank-and-file workers.”
Right to Work is one of the fastest growing movements in America.
With 27 Right to Work states in the country, Right to Work has demonstrated that right wing causes can gain tremendous traction in America.
This movement has played a key role in restoring the freedom of association that many Americans have been deprived of for the past 80 years.
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