Clarksburg, West Virginia March 31, 2011 – A Dominion Hope utility worker has filed federal charges against a local union after union officials illegally attempted to force him into full-dues-paying union membership.
With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys, Dominion Hope employee Jeremy Dimick of West Union filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board NLRB on Wednesday.
Utility Workers Union of America UWUA Local 69 union officials enjoy monopoly bargaining privileges over Dominion Hope’s employees. In November 2010, Dimick sent a letter to union officials stating that he was exercising his right under National Right to Work Foundation-won Supreme Court precedent in Communication Workers v. Beck to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership.
However, because West Virginia does not have a Right to Work law, workers who refrain from formal union membership can still be forced to pay a part of union dues as a condition of employment, but cannot be compelled to pay the portion used for the union’s political, lobbying, and member-only activities.
Despite Dimick’s letter, UWUA Local 69 union officials continued to extract full union dues from his paycheck. Then in December, union officials ordered him to file another objection letter and refused to provide him with a legally-required breakdown of union expenditures that had evidence that it was actually verified by an independent audit. Dimick contests the part of union fees used for forcing workers in different industries in the region into union ranks.
Meanwhile, Dimick requested that the UWUA Local 69 union hierarchy respect his First Amendment rights of free speech and let him remove the union logo patch from his uniform. Union officials refuse to honor his request.
Rear more @ National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
