Union may soon face legal charges for dues extortion complaint
By Christen Smith | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – A Pittsburgh-area union may soon face prosecution from the regional National Labor Relations Board after failing to settle a complaint with a former member who accused the organization of extorting him for dues.
In August, Coca-Cola driver Josh Hammaker and the National Right to Work Foundation filed a lawsuit against Teamsters Local 585 for violating his constitutional right to opt out of membership and avoid paying dues that can support political activities. However, the union contract stipulated that joining was mandatory.
On Monday, management at ABARTA, the Houston, Pa., distribution company that hired Hammaker, agreed to post notices that employees will not be fired for refusing union membership.
“We are proud to have supported Mr. Hammaker’s victory over these blatantly illegal attempts to coerce formal union membership,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “But his fight is far from over. The sad fact is that union bosses across the country skim dues for their often-radical political activities straight from worker paychecks without any positive consent at all. To make matters worse, union officials often don’t inform workers about their Beck rights, which is workers’ only escape from such deductions in non-right to work states.”
Mix’s comments reference CWA v. Beck, a U.S. Supreme Court decision that held compulsory union fees are limited to collective bargaining costs only, not “nonchargeable” expenses that can include political activities.
Hammaker says that his former union violated this law by asking employees to “opt out” of the fee rather than asking for their permission beforehand.
“Right to work protections should exist nationwide because they put American workers – not union bosses or bureaucrats – back in control of deciding whether a union has earned employees’ financial support,” Mix said. “But in the meantime, the NLRB should at least 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 lawsuit points to what critics say is a slush fund for Democratic candidates bankrolled by automatic payroll deductions of union dues, many of whom rank-and-file members don’t support.
The Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative policy group based in Harrisburg, said government unions spent $33 million in 2023 and 2024 supporting political action committees and other causes, of which just 5.2% backed candidates from other parties.
Foundation research shows that membership dues bankrolled more than half of the $227 million unions have spent on political endeavors since 2007. According to the report, the organizations spent the money on voting drives, lobbying, mailers, and PAC contributions to sidestep claims that the money doesn’t directly support political candidates.
The Teamsters represent 1.3 million workers – from newspaper reporters to zookeepers to police officers and everything in between – across the country.
Regional chapters of the union stood behind Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates. Holman’s research found that the same held true in Pennsylvania, where unions spent $2.1 million on state and local races that helped maintain the party’s one-seat majority in the state House of Representatives.
“With a long-standing record of transparency issues within these unions, many members remain in the dark about what their dues are actually funding,” Holman said.
