The National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against the UAW for its demands to fire a Michigan GE Aviation worker who refused to pay union dues.
The worker, Richard Howard, had accused the union and his former employer of illegal activity in an unfair labor practice charge filed with the federal agency.
Howard accuses UAW officials of violating his rights as established in the US Supreme Court case CWA v. Beck, in which it held that union bosses cannot force workers who opt out of union membership to pay dues for the union’s “non-chargeable” expenses such as political and ideological activities.
According to Howard’s charge, GE Aviation fired him from his job in Grand Rapids, MI, at the UAW’s demand when he refused to join the UAW and sign a “dues checkoff” form authorizing dues to be deducted direct from his paycheck.
The NLRB is seeking to restore to Howard any earnings he has lost since his dismissal and any dues illegally deducted from his pay. The case will be heard by a federal administrative law judge. Howard is represented by the National Right to Work Foundation, a non-profit founded in 1968 to combat coercive union power and compulsory union membership.