Posted on 07/09/2025 12:20:12 PM PDT by Twotone
A Coca-Cola driver in Houston, Pa., says leaders of his local Teamsters union threatened to fire him if he didn’t join the organization and pay dues.
And now, he’s taking them to federal court.
“I don’t support Teamsters politicking. My job definitely shouldn’t hinge on whether or not my hard-earned money is funding it,” said Josh Hammaker, who filed the complaint with the National Labor Relations Board earlier this month. “It’s bad enough I have to pay any money to Teamsters officials just to keep my job, but the NLRB should at least prevent union officials from automatically taking political funds from an employee’s wages by default and instead place the responsibility on the union to obtain the employee’s consent.”
Hammaker says Teamsters Local 585 violated his constitutional right to opt out of membership and avoid paying dues that can support political activities. However, the union contract stipulated that joining was mandatory.
Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, said the behavior is all too common in collective bargaining states.
“Like the rest of top Big Labor bosses, Teamsters kingpins oppose popular Right to Work laws so they can extort dues from unwilling workers and use that money to fund a radical political agenda that is completely out of touch with the priorities of most rank-and-file employees,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
I worked in a location where 91% of the people belonged to the union.
I never signed up.
The people I worked with seemed reasonable with me, however.
Rest in peace
Shocked, SHOCKED that the Teamsters would use force if coercion doesn’t work.
I wish the man luck, but he may need bodyguards a concrete home, with a steel roof and electrified fencing.
Times have changed.
When I was in high school,I had a job making deliveries for a commercial bakery.
I wasn’t a union member.
They wanted to kill me.
I don’t believe Pa is a right to work state.
Not a union advocate, but when I worked at a union packing house in the early 1980s, I joined since that’s where the benefits, wages were coming from.
Right before an unplanned, two week shutdown, I had to go to the emergency room & was in the hospital for 30 days. Management said they weren’t paying it because I knew that there was an unplanned, unannounced shut down & that I went to the emergency room at 2:00 a.m. on purpose and my union steward agreed with management.
I kicked him out of the meeting and got a steward who fought for me. I remember asking the first steward why was I paying $5 a paycheck if he was going to agree with management.
Six months later, the company told the union to take a $2 an hour pay cut. Union said management was bluffing & voted it down. Company shut the doors for two years to wait out the contact & re-opened at half the pay. I saw an article a month or two ago stating the small town is on pins & needles as its mostly illegals working there now.
All unions have been doing the same sort of thing since the 1940s...
LORD, please protect him.
I’m pretty sure there’s a rule #1 in the union club...
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
― Eric Hoffer
150 years ago, labor unions served a cause. The cause they serve now is organized crime.
Good luck Josh Hammaker you’ll get to retire early.
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