Employee alleges union illegally forced union dues in West Virginia, seeks harsher action from NLRB

(The Center Square) – A West Virginia Kroger employee is seeking harsher action from the National Labor Relations Board after alleging her union illegally forced employees to pay union dues.

The employee, Shelby Krocker, filed an opposition to NLRB Acting General Counsel Peter Ohr’s decision to allow the union to impose a settlement, which she says will shield the union officials from providing a full remedy. She alleges the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 union illegally demanded employees sign dues checkoff authorization forms, which permits the union to deduct union dues from employee checks.

According to her complaint, union officials wrote “must be signed” in large print on the form. She said this violates West Virginia’s right-to-work protections, which prohibit unions from forcing employees to join the union and collect dues as a condition of employment.

Although NLRB Region 6 initially dismissed the charge, it was successfully appealed to the previous NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb under the Trump administration. Robb found that the union violated state law and ordered Region 6 to issue complaint prosecution. After an NLRB Administrative Law Judge declined to find the union guilty, she appealed her case to the NLRB, whose general counsel backed her effort.

However, since Robb has been ousted and Ohr took over under the Biden administration, the NLRB is seeking a light ruling against the union, which Krocker’s opposition states are “bare political attempts to strip the Board of its ability to hear the important issues raised in this case,” and “the proposed agreement does not fully remedy the unfair labor practices alleged in the Complaint and as shown by the stipulated factual record.”

Krocker’s lawyers are also alleging it is too late for an informal settlement because the case is already before the NLRB. They also say Ohr does not have the authority to file motions in the case because Robb was fired without legal basis before his Senate-confirmed term was finished. She is being represented by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

“The NLRB should reject this attempt by the union-label Peter Ohr to force an obviously insufficient settlement that seemingly deliberately fails to fully vindicate the rights of Krocker and her coworkers,” NRTW Foundation Vice President Patrick Semmens told The Center Square.

“The Board should do this for two main reasons,” Semmens said. “First, because this last-minute settlement proposed by Ohr lets UFCW bosses evade providing a full remedy to the rights violations, and is just an attempt to let the UFCW avoid an Board ruling that union officials violated the law. Second, the NLRB should reject Ohr’s request because President Biden unlawfully removed General Counsel Peter Robb before his term ended, meaning there is no legal basis for Ohr’s designation as Acting General Counsel.”

The NRLB did not respond to a request for comment from The Center Square.

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