‘It is outrageous that LIUNA bosses are forcing Ms. Frame to choose between keeping her job and violating her sincere religious beliefs…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) A Catholic employee filed a charge against J & J Worldwide Service and its labor union, alleging union officials refused to allow her to leave the union and demanded she “provide a theological defense” for why she should not pay union dues.
Dorothy Frame, an employee at Fort Campbell, Tennessee, said she approached officials of Laborers Local Union 576 (LIUNA) and requested a religious exemption so she could opt out of paying union dues.
She noted that union dues go toward health insurance that covers abortion, and because she believes abortion is the unjustified destruction of a human life,” she does not want her money to fund it.
Frame’s “understanding of Catholic teaching, Scripture, and God’s will” led her to believe that funding and supporting a union that subsidizes abortions would be “sinful,” she explained in her request.
The labor union, however, denied her request and argued her reasoning is not a “legitimate justification.”
Frame then provided a letter from her parish priest upholding her beliefs, but “the union lawyer rejected this evidence based on his supposedly superior religious views,” Frame’s charge alleges.
So, Frame filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging religious discrimination.
Tennessee has “Right to Work” laws in place, but Fort Campbell’s status was an “exclusive federal enclave” could override those protections, according to the National Right to Work Foundation.
“It is outrageous that LIUNA bosses are forcing Ms. Frame to choose between keeping her job and violating her sincere religious beliefs,” National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix said in a statement.
“While such religious discrimination is a blatant violation of federal law, union boss demands in this case serve as a reminder why no worker in America should be forced to subsidize union activities they oppose, whether their opposition is religious-based or for other reasons,” Mix said.