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Mary Beck slapped both the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers and Penn Aluminum in Murphysboro with federal
charges last year, maintaining that union dues were coming out
of her paycheck under a defective contract.
She added additional charges in August 2022, stating that union
officials had acknowledged her demand, but threatened to get her
fired if she didn’t pay an unspecified amount of money to the
union.
Beck filed charges to defend her rights under the National Right
to Work Foundation-won CWA v. Harry Beck Supreme Court decision,
which forbids union officials from having employees in states
like Illinois fired for refusal to pay for union politics and
other expenses outside the union’s “representation” functions.
“That's the case that basically recognizes the rights of workers
in non-right-to-work states as it relates to how much they can
be forced to pay,” said Mark Mix, president of the National
Right to Work Foundation, who represented Beck.
Beck’s charges stated that IBEW union officials didn’t
acknowledge her January 2022 and March 2022 requests to end
union membership and stop full dues deductions until July 2022,
when they finally sent her a copy of the union contract and
ended dues deductions. However, they still demanded she pay an
indefinite amount of union fees to keep her job.
“Instead of going further with this, I think the union just said
lets just pay her back and get it over with, and while that's a
victory, obviously our goal is to press these cases and pull
anything we can out of it, but in this case, I think that was
the best course of action and Mary wanted to settle the case,”
said Mix.
IBEW bosses now must pay back to Beck all money seized from her
paycheck for union dues. The settlements also stipulate that
Penn Aluminum management attend mandatory training on how to
properly respond to employee requests to end union membership
and refrain from full dues deductions.
Twenty-seven states are "right to work" where union membership
and all union financial support are strictly voluntary and the
free choice of each worker.
Kevin Bessler reports on statewide issues in
Illinois for the Center Square. He has over 30 years of
experience in radio news reporting throughout the Midwest.
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