Obama NLRB Declares War on Right To Work

The Obama National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been hitting at the edge of Right To Work for six years; now it has signaled a frontal assault on Right To Work freedom.

In a recent announcement, the NLRB signaled that it intends to force non-members in Right To Work states to pay for union grievance representation.  This is a head-on assault by the NLRB to undermine Right To Work protections.

Union bosses create grievance policies and force all employees, union and non-union, under a monopoly bargaining contract to accept union representation in those grievances.

It is well understood in Labor Law that union officers “own the grievance process.”   In fact, in all grievance proceedings union officers must be allowed to participate and have the “right” to reject any grievance resolution that may conflict with the existing contract.  Moreover, in many grievance procedures, only the union can file appeals.   Now, the NLRB wants to force non-members to pay for this forced unionism power.

The NLRB clearly intends to undo precedents dating back to 1953, and force non-union members to pay union fees for grievance procedures which union contracts mandate that each employee utilize.

This is the ultimate payback by Obama’s NLRB to Big Labor before the next presidential election. The National Right To Work Committee and the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation are already engaged in this fight.  We will keep you updated on Obama’s NLRB latest attack on Right To Work freedom.

“When this board is asking for an amicus brief on the reconsideration of a rule, the majority’s already decided that it wants to change the rule,” said Michael Lotito, a management-side attorney at Littler Mendelson. “This is a signal from this board that [says]: ‘we’re going to push back against the expansion of these right-to-work actions.’”

NLRB TAKES ON RIGHT-TO-WORK: The National Labor Relations Board’s newest target is the right-to-work movement. In a call for briefs yesterday, the agency said it may allow a union to collect a fee from a non-member in a right-to-work state if that member avails himself of union grievance procedures. Under current NLRB caselaw, unions are prohibited from collecting any fees from non-members in right-to-work states, regardless of whether those members actually use that union’s resources in a conflict with their employer. That’s what the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act,  which created the right-to-work option for states and territories, has always been understood to mean. (click here to read more)

Source: NRTWC