Business

These Employees Just Cannot Get Rid Of Their Union

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Font Size:

Federal labor officials are denying workers at a South Carolina plant the ability to vote out their union despite multiple attempts, according to reports Wednesday.

Workers at Johnson Controls, Inc. have tried multiple ways to decertify the United Auto Workers (UAW). They tried first with an informal withdrawal petition followed by a request to hold a secret ballot election. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), however, has blocked both attempts.

“There is a lot of people there that don’t want a union,” attorney Glenn Taubman told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “A lot of people that feel they don’t need a third party mediator.”

Taubman works as a staff attorney for the National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW). The foundation is helping to represent Brenda Lynch and the other employees involved in the case. The withdrawal petition was blocked because the union filed a complaint against its use. This despite the petition being a legally recognized method to decertify a union.

“They handed their employer a petition signed by the majority of employees stating they don’t want the union,” Taubman continued. “Technically this is legal.”

A withdrawal petition can be dismissed if it evident the employer coerced employees into signing it or tampered with it in some way. The complaint filed by the union, which was obtained by TheDCNF, failed to cite such a reason.

“They counted the petition and sent a letter to the union saying they are withdrawing,” Taubman continued. “The union filed a complaint.”

After the complaint was filed, the NLRB ordered Johnson Controls to allow the union back in. In response, workers filed for a more formal secret ballot election to vote out the union. This, however, was also blocked by the NLRB, which cited the pending union complaint against the company as the reason why.

“This is the worst NLRB in my 33 years of practice,” Taubman added. “It’s very easy to get a union in but it’s very, very difficult to get them out.”

The NLRB has been accused on multiple occasions of unfairly benefiting unions. This often at the expense of employers and their workers. The case could set a precedents, as well, making it more difficult to use withdrawal petitions. NLRB General Counsel Richard F. Griffin has been adamantly opposed to the method.

“Richard Griffin has argued these petitions shouldn’t count,” Taubman concluded. “But so far it’s still the law.”

At the moment the NLRB can hold the union complaint as long as it would like. There is no time limit to resolve the issue and cases have been known to drag on. The only other option would be for the UAW to withdraw its complaint. That, though, is unlikely to happen.

“Brenda and her coworkers remain trapped under union boss monopoly control, despite multiple attempts to remove the union,” NRTW President Mark Mix said in a statement. “Even more absurd, the NLRB and the UAW are blocking the employees’ request for a secret ballot election on the grounds that the company violated federal labor law by respecting the wishes of the majority of its workers who want nothing to do with the union.”

The UAW and the NLRB did not respond to requests for comment from TheDCNF.

Follow Connor on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel