Two recent victories won by National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys highlight how compulsory unionism and monopoly bargaining harm the very workers union bosses claim to represent.
That's especially true in these tough economic times.
With the help of Foundation attorneys, a truck driver on ABC Studios television productions won back over $55,000 in lost income because Teamster union officials refused to allow him to do his job for nearly a year.
Thomas Coghill, a member of Teamster Local 391, worked as a makeup truck driver on the set of Army Wives for two seasons before the union bosses at a different Teamster Local schemed to give preferential treatment to its own members.who control the exclusive hiring hall for the production, removed Coghill from its "Referral List," costing him his job on the show's crew.
An administrative law judge ordered the Teamster Local 509 union hierarchy to pay the driver lost wages plus interest and post a notice of employees' rights in the workplace.
Also this week, Kerry Ingredients workers in St. Louis voted 164 to 33 to strip United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union bosses of their power to force workers to pay dues as a condition of employment.
The deauthorization vote came after the employees refused to authorize a strike and UFCW union officials rammed through a contract even though members of the union overwhelmingly voted it down.
The union hierarchy's behavior is simply unconscionable.
Both cases reinforce the Foundation's poll last fall demonstrating how out of touch union bosses are with the rank-and-file.
According to our scientific survey, conducted by a prominent national pollster, 72 percent of union members think union bosses should be held more accountable to workers and 63 percent think union bosses are overpaid.
The complex web of federal labor law and burdensome union rules forces independent-minded workers and even union members themselves to jump through legal and bureaucratic hoops to assert their rights and work to provide for their families.
Your tax-deductible contributions to the National Right to Work Foundation allow our staff attorneys to help these workers and set important precedents to protect all employees.
But cases like these are also a stark reminder why we need Right to Work laws -- and why they need to be vigorously enforced.
Sincerely,
Mark Mix
Teamster Local 509 union chiefs,
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