Pittsburgh-Area Coca-Cola Driver Slams Teamsters With Federal Charges for Threatening Firing Over Refusal to Fund Union Politics

Hammaker’s charges state that Teamsters union officials breached federal labor law by “telling [him] that he is not permitted to become a Beck objector and that formal union membership is a condition of employment,” – i.e. they would demand his firing if he refused to join. Under the Foundation-won Communication Workers of America v. Beck Supreme Court decision, union bosses cannot force workers who have opted out of union membership to pay fees for union political or ideological expenditures.

While the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) protects workers’ right to abstain from formal union membership, states like Pennsylvania that lack Right to Work laws permit union officials to enforce contracts that mandate workers pay dues or fees to keep their jobs. However, this forced-dues power is limited by Beck. In contrast, in Right to Work states, all union financial support is strictly voluntary, so workers can freely withhold dues payments if they find union officials’ monopoly “representation” is harming them.

Coca-Cola Driver’s Case Challenges NLRB Precedent Regarding Dues for Politics

Hammaker’s charges go on to challenge the fact that Teamsters union officials’ policies force workers to “affirmatively opt out of paying for non-chargeable expenditures” (if such requests are accepted at all), as opposed to letting workers voluntarily opt in to such support. Moreover, “the Union has violated the Act by failing to inform [Hammaker] and similarly situated employees of the true amount of dues they are required to pay” under Beck to stay employed, the charges conclude.

Union officials often neglect to inform workers of their Beck rights, and sometimes don’t even seek worker consent before deducting full dues (including dues for political expenses) from their paychecks. If Hammaker’s case is successful, the NLRB could create a new federal standard mandating union officials to seek clear consent from workers before extracting full union dues payments from their paychecks.

“I don’t support Teamsters politicking. My job definitely shouldn’t hinge on whether or not my hard-earned money is funding it,” commented Hammaker. “It’s bad enough I have to pay any money to Teamsters officials just to keep my job, but the NLRB should at least prevent union officials from automatically taking political funds from an employee’s wages by default and instead place the responsibility on the union to obtain the employee’s consent.”

“Like the rest of top Big Labor bosses, Teamsters kingpins oppose popular Right to Work laws so they can extort dues from unwilling workers and use that money to fund a radical political agenda that is completely out of touch with the priorities of most rank-and-file employees,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “The solution to this problem is ensuring all union payments are completely voluntary, so union officials cannot have workers fired solely for refusing to pay dues or fees.

“While we wait for the day when Congress takes action to strip union officials of their government-granted forced-dues powers, the NLRB should help protect workers from the worst forced-dues-for-politics abuses,” added Mix. “It’s long past time that the NLRB require union officials to earn political support from those workers they claim to ‘represent’ and end schemes that require workers to opt-out of funding union political activities.”

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year. Its web address is www.nrtw.org.