-By Warner Todd Huston
So, you are a bus driver in Batavia, Illinois. You and your co-workers go to the effort to gather together in true democratic fashion and vote to opt out of your union at Laidlaw Transit. The next thing you know, the union is STILL claiming to represent you in contract talks with the company. Not only that, but the union is demanding you pay dues and if you don’t you are threatened with being fired!
An impossible scenario, you think? Hardly, because that is exactly what is happening.
The NRTW gives us the details:
As Haasch details in his charges, ATU union officials have been negotiating a contract with First Group, despite the fact that Haasch and his coworkers had successfully ousted the union earlier this year. According to First Group’s website, on October 1 the UK-based transit company completed the purchase of Haasch’s employer, Laidlaw Transit.
So, the union is out. But how is it they are still trying to extort the employee’s money?
According to the National Labor Relations Act, by bargaining over the contracts of employees that the union does not legally represent, the union and First Group are engaging in illegal “pre-recognition” bargaining. As part of their negotiations, the union is once again seeking a forced-dues clause in the contract that makes payment of union dues a job requirement. Indeed, union officials have been given access to First Group facilities and are now demanding that employees pay union dues or be fired.
(my emphasis)
These union thugs are ignoring the very wishes of the employees they are claiming to represent.
Remember, unions only care about the little guy… even when the little guy wants nothing to do with them! So, who are unions really serving? No one but themselves, of course.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston