Labor Board Stifles Freedom of Workers

Harry Bernstein’s complaint of delays by the National Labor Relations Board, “NLRB Is Shifting Into Neutral” (Feb. 19), sounded a familiar note here at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

NLRB stonewalling of employees’ freedom is something we deal with far too often. For instance, Alan Strang went to the NLRB more than five years ago to assert his right not to pay forced union dues for political and other activity not necessary to collective bargaining.

And even with a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision supporting him, it still took a recent lawsuit to finally force NLRB officials to issue a complaint on Strang’s behalf. Unfortunately, Strang’s case is just the tip of the iceberg.

The foundation-won decision in the case, Communication Workers of America vs. Beck, made it clear that employees cannot be forced to fund the politics of union officials. But today languishing at the NLRB are still more than 200 cases of employees like Strang trying to assert their Beck rights.

At the foundation, we’re still waiting for the NLRB to “shift into neutral.”

TIMOTHY M. MCCONVILLE

The writer is vice president of communications for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation Inc. in Springfield, Va.