Wisconsin Bank Employee Wins Settlement From AFSCME Union Bosses

May 31st 2011 · 0 Comments

Milwaukee, WI May 31, 2011 – A U.S. Bank customer service and support employee reached a settlement with local union officials last week after union officials illegally attempted to force him and his colleagues into full-dues-paying union membership.

Peter Quinones of Milwaukee filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board NLRB against American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees AFSCME Local 777 union officials in March with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation.

After AFSCME Local 777 union bosses were granted monopoly bargaining privileges over approximately 300 U.S. Bank employees, Quinones 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.

Because Wisconsin is a forced unionism state, workers who refrain from formal union membership can still be forced to pay part of union dues, but cannot be compelled to pay the portion used for the union’s political, lobbying, and member-only activities.

Despite his letter, AFSCME Local 777 union officials continued to extract full union dues from Quinones paycheck. After he filed an unfair labor practice charge, union officials still refused to honor his request to exercise his legal rights. Quinones then filed another charge to prevent the union hierarchy from requiring him to pay forced union fees by automatic deduction from his paycheck in violation of federal law. The latest charge forced AFSCME Local 777 union officials to finally settle the case.

In the settlement, union officials agreed to reimburse all union dues illegally seized from Quinones’ and his coworkers paychecks and to post a notice in the workplace informing the workers of their rights to refrain from union membership and object to funding union boss political activities.