On July 16, 2020, National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed an opposition brief on behalf of Selbyville, DE Mountaire Farms worker Oscar Cruz Sosa. This brief was filed as a response to the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 27 union lawyers’ attempt to slam the brakes on the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) request for amicus briefs in his case.
Cruz filed the petition on behalf of hundreds of his fellow workers for a vote to kick out UFCW Local 27 bosses from their workplace. Union lawyers argued that the vote should be blocked due to the so-called “contract bar,” a non-statutory NLRB policy that prohibits workers from holding a vote to remove a union they oppose for up to three years after the union and employer agree to a contract.
Even following a regional NLRB official’s ruling that the vote should be carried out under well-established precedent due to the union contract’s illegal forced dues clause. This meant that the “contract bar” would not be applicable. UFCW lawyers didn’t cease in their attempt to block the workers’ vote and filed an appeal to the NLRB in Washington. As of now, the NLRB is investigating the validity of the “contract bar” doctrine and requesting briefs on the matter.
Cruz’s petition highlights how although unions have often criticized the NLRB recently “for failing to seek amicus briefing when it contemplates policy changes in a given case,” it is rather bizarre that UFCW leaders are currently “criticizing it for engaging in illicit ‘rulemaking’” in addition to asking for amicus briefs in this case
The documents in this entire case be found here.
The Petitioner’s’ Opposition to the Union’s Motion for Reconsideration can be found here.
