New legal notice published to help temporary workers over holiday season

(The Center Square) – A new legal notice has been published to help temporary seasonal workers know their rights, especially in the transportation, retail, food service, and other industries hired for the 2021 holiday season.

The notice, published by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, explains that temporary staff don’t necessarily have to join unions or pay union dues.

“American workers who step up during the holidays and go the extra mile to make the season special do not deserve to be subjected to union boss coercion, but Foundation staff attorneys have encountered countless situations in which greedy union bosses misled new workers who don’t understand their rights,” Foundation President Mark Mix said in a statement accompanying the notice.

The foundation points to the case of a seasonal worker hired by UPS in Stockton, Calif., several years ago who was hired for the Christmas delivery rush. He worked for 13 days and his first paycheck was for $0 because UPS management deducted full union dues at the behest of Teamsters Local 439.

Because California isn’t a Right to Work state, nonmember workers can be forced to pay a part of union dues and fees or be fired from their job.

But under federal labor law, that’s only after 30 days of actual employment, referred to as a “grace period,” the foundation notes. And union dues and fees can only be deducted from wages after an employee fills out a union dues deduction authorization form, which authorizes employers to automatically withhold union dues from employee paychecks.

Even though the UPS employee only worked for 13 days and didn’t join the union or sign a dues deduction authorization form, full union dues were still deducted from his wages.

Earlier this fall, UPS announced it was hiring over 100,000 essential seasonal workers, and the foundation hopes its legal guidance will help temporary employees know their rights.

“If you are a temporary worker in any state, regardless of whether it has Right to Work protections, you do not necessarily have to join a union or pay union fees as a condition of employment for your temporary job,” the foundation said. “Union officials and some employers may wrongly tell you it is necessary for you to join a union or pay union fees, but there are some stipulations.”

Seasonal employees cannot be legally coerced to sign paperwork authorizing union dues deductions straight from their paychecks, or authorizing union membership, the foundation says. Forcing temporary workers to sign either kind of document is illegal, it warns.

“Forced union membership could trap you into paying union dues and fees well after you have ended your seasonal employment,” its legal notice states.

The legal notice, available online in both English and Spanish, also includes contact information for the Foundation’s staff attorneys to provide temporary workers with free legal assistance.

Right to Work laws in 27 states ensure that no private-sector worker can be forced to financially support a union as a condition of employment.

Worker rights vary by state and employment category, according to whether or not someone is a federal, state or local government employee, private sector employee, charter school, public school or college employee, or airline or railway employee.

All public employees, including teachers, police officers, firefighters, and state, county and city employees, no matter what state they are in, are protected by the First Amendment from being forced to subsidize any union activity without giving their consent after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in 2018.

In the foundation-won Janus v. AFSCME, the court ruled, “States and public-sector unions may no longer extract agency fees from non-consenting employees. … Neither an agency fee nor any other payment to the union may be deducted from a nonmember’s wages, nor may any other attempt be made to collect such a payment, unless the employee affirmatively consents to pay [the union].”

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