Worker files NLRB charges over union dues dispute

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An employee of Olympic Companies has filed charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 7, claiming union officials unlawfully coerced into formal union membership and dues payment.

Caryn Johnson said IUPAT officials told her that being a dues-paying, formal union member was a mandatory part of her employment at Olympic, contrary to federal law.

The charges were filed at the NLRB with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing the National Labor Relations Act, a task that includes adjudicating labor disputes between union officials, employers, and individual employees.

According to the charges, Johnson was coerced into joining the union after IUPAT District Council 7 union bosses told her that she had to be a dues-paying union member in order to be employed at Olympic Companies. Under longstanding federal law, full union membership cannot be required, nor can an employee be required to sign a card authorizing the deduction of union dues from her paycheck, which IUPAT officials also demanded Johnson sign to be employed.

Johnson resigned her union membership after she found out that IUPAT union officials misled her about her legal rights. Her charges state that despite validly resigning her union membership, IUPAT continued to extract dues from her wages, apparently relying on the “dues authorization” form she was coerced into signing. Union officials are claiming she cannot cut off dues for approximately eight months, and even then, must provide additional written revocation during the union’s arbitrary revocation window.

Wisconsin is one of the 26 states with a Right to Work law, which protects workers by making union affiliation and dues payment strictly voluntary. This means, not only could dues deductions not be required for employment, but because of the Right to Work, no union payments of any form can be mandatory as a condition of employment.