30 Rush University Medical workers win release from union

[July 30, 2021]  By Andrew Hensel

(The Center Square) – More than 30 maintenance workers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago have split from their union in order to negotiate for work conditions and pay.

The release from Teamsters Local 743 comes after a secret ballot vote in which more than 70 percent of voters voted to leave the Teamsters union.

Patrick Semmens, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation, said the purpose of the ballot was to determine what the workers wanted to do.

"It is a secret ballot election that is the first step in this process," Semmens said. "If the ballot comes back with a majority of the vote in favor of removal, then that union is no more."

The removal from the union allows the maintenance workers to negotiate and be considered for promotions and raises.

"Unions do a lot of raises based on seniority instead of merit," Semmens said. "A lot of the hardest working individuals do not ever get rewarded because they have not been there as long as others."

In July 2020, the National Labor Relations Board adopted new rules that put an end to some union tactics. Semmens said that without these new rules, the union lawyer could have delayed this for a long time.

"Without this new rule, an unproven allegation that union lawyer could have filed could have delayed this vote for months, even years," Semmens said. "Instead, it was able to go forward with a majority vote and the union did not even challenge the outcome."

The National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix praised the majority vote.

"The successful ouster is the latest in a string of successful worker-led decertifications of Teamsters officials across the country. Right to Work protections ensures that no worker can be required to join or pay dues to a union as a condition of keeping his or her job," he said. “We will continue to work towards a day when unions can neither impose their so-called ‘representation on individual workers against their will, nor force them to fund union activities."