(The Center Square) – More than 400 workers from two northern Ohio cities voted this month to remove Teamster union control from their workplaces.
According to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Omnisource employees in Toledo and Frito-Lay employees in Wooster – a total of 430 employees – could have all ties cut with the union in the next few days.
Teamsters Local 20 officials could still file a request to review with the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., in the next few days.
“Teamsters union officials continue to lose support from the very workers they claim to ‘represent’, and these cases demonstrate yet again why every worker, in Ohio and nationwide, deserves the protection of a Right to Work law so they can decide for themselves whether or not to financially support union officials’ activities,” National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix said.
The process started in October 2023 when Frito-Lay employee Dusty Hinkle submitted a petition asking the NLRB to hold union decertification elections. Omnisource employee Daniel Caughhorn filed a similar petition last August.
The foundation provided free legal aid to both employees.
Both Hinkle’s and Caughhorn’s petitions contained a sufficient number of signatures to trigger a vote under NLRB rules, and workers at both locations voted to remove the union. However, Teamsters officials filed objections against Frito-Lay and Omnisource management to overturn the election results.
The NLRB ruled against the objections, allowing the vote to stand.
“While we’re glad these workers have succeeded in freeing themselves from unwanted unionization, it should not require months of litigation and overcoming attempts by union lawyers to overturn the workers’ votes,” Mix said.
Foundation attorneys have worked with truck drivers from Georgia, California, Virginia and New Jersey over the past two months to remove Teamsters from workplaces.
“This case shows yet again that despite what local and national Teamsters union bosses claim, they don’t actually speak for the rank-and-file they claim to ‘represent’ and, in fact, have no qualms about attempting to disenfranchise those workers to trap them in union ranks they oppose,” Mix said.
