(The Center Square) – Krause Funeral Home and Cremation Services workers in the Milwaukee area are no longer represented by a union after an employee-backed petition was filed earlier this year, the company withdrew recognition of the union and the Teamsters Local 344 union dropped a complaint in the case.
Krause employee Noah Watry and fellow workers filed a decertification petition in October and National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed a motion to intervene in a case in front of the National Labor Relations Board.
The petition asked the NLRB to hold a vote to remove the union from the three Milwaukee-based Krause locations. Those represented included funeral directors, embalmers and apprentices at the locations in Milwaukee, Brookfield and New Berlin.
The union then accused Krause and the NLRB from withdrawing recognition illicitly and filed unfair labor practice charges.
“This case illustrates clearly the lengths that union officials will go in order to hold on to power in a workplace where workers would prefer to be independent,” National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix said in a statement. “The Foundation is pleased to have been able to aid Mr. Watry and his colleagues in navigating the convoluted federal labor bureaucracy that places hardworking Americans like them at a disadvantage whenever they seek to exercise their rights.”
Wisconsin is one of 26 states with Right to Work laws that make union affiliation and dues payment strictly voluntary, even though union officials can impose exclusive bargaining control upon all workers in a workplace.
