Alaska Teamsters Union Prosecuted For Threatening Workers and Seizing Dues For Politics

National Right To Work ^ | 5 June 2002

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Alaska Teamsters Union Prosecuted For Threatening Workers and Seizing Dues For Politics
Federal labor board to conduct trial of union for violating employee’s rights

FOR RELEASE: June 5, 2002

Anchorage, Alaska (June 5, 2002) — Responding to charges brought by Joshua Deuter, an employee of First Student Inc., the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will prosecute Teamsters Local 959 for illegally forcing employees to pay full union dues, including dues spent for politics, and threatening employees by saying that circulating a deauthorization petition was a criminal act.

Enjoying free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation, Deuter filed unfair labor practice charges against the union in February 2002. The NLRB has set a trial date for August 8, 2002.

Last December, in an effort to prevent workers from signing a deauthorization petition (which calls for an NLRB-supervised election to throw out the mandatory dues clause from the collective bargaining agreement), a union shop steward threatened Deuter. According to the NLRB’s complaint, Deuter and others were told that the petition was “illegal, a criminal act,” and that the union “could press internal charges against employees for circulating the petition.”

“In an effort to amass a political war chest, Teamsters officials are demanding that workers shut up and pay up,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation.

Since October 2001, Teamsters union officials have required employees to pay full union dues solely by deduction from their paychecks and have failed to inform employees of their rights not to join and not to pay full dues.

The actions of Teamsters Local 959 officials violated employee rights established by the U.S. Supreme Court decision. Under Beck, a case that Foundation attorneys argued and won, workers who are not protected by a Right to Work law may resign from formal union membership and halt and reclaim the portion of forced union dues spent on politics and other activities unrelated to collective bargaining.

“Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Union bosses routinely break the law to try and shake down workers to pay for their political activities,” stated Gleason.

The Teamsters are one of the most politically active unions in the country. Every year, union officials seize millions of dollars in compulsory dues to support candidates and causes that many of their members find objectionable. Polls have consistently shown that a majority of rank-and-file union members object to having their dues spent for political activities.