Union backs off illegal termination threat a day after Essity employee filed federal charges

Just one day after Greenville resident Keri Wenske filed federal charges against United Steelworkers Local 2-1279 for attempting to illegally terminate her employment at paper company Essity in Neenah, the union has rescinded its threat.

Wenske, who has been employed at the Neenah-based Essity for decades, said Steelworkers officials ordered the company to fire her after she exercised her right to end her union membership and cut off dues deductions, according to a news release from National Right to Work Foundation.

She said Steelworkers union officials violated her rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRB). This act ensures that American private sector employees can abstain from union activities.

Wisconsin's Right to Work law also forbids union officials from forcing workers to join or pay dues to a union as a condition of being an employee.

Wenske filed charges at the NLRB on Thursday and received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

The news release stated Wenske submitted a letter in early February to the president of Steelworkers, Bill Kilishek, resigning her union membership and requesting that all dues deductions from her paycheck stop.

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According to the news release, because the dues deduction authorization from Wenske signed allows for an immediate end of deductions upon her resignation of her union membership, permitted by NLRB precedent, her resignation letter should have been sufficient enough to end her membership and any dues coming from her paycheck.

Instead, shortly after receiving her letter, Kilishek told Wenske that "she would be terminated from her employment based on her decision to resign her union membership," according to the news release.

The release said a union agent from Steelworkers International showed Wenske a copy of a letter written by the union ordering Essity to fire Wenske for resigning.

According to Wenske's charge, Essity had not acted on the request as of Thursday.

On Friday, Jacob Comello from the National Right to Work said the union has backed off of its illegal termination threat after Foundation attorneys filed charges for Wenske.

Although the union ultimately withdrew its notice of termination for Wenske, Steeleworkers union has been involved in a string of cases against them recently.

"Steelworkers union officials are continuing their nationwide campaign of punishing workers who disagree with the union's agenda," said Mark Mix, National Right to Work Foundation president, in a news release.

In January, workers at Latrobe Specialty Metals/Franklin Carpenter Technology in Franklin, Pennsylvania, successfully voted Steelworkers officials out of the facility with free legal aid by the Foundation after Steelworkers chiefs tried to enforce a contract on the workers that they voted against twice.

Additionally in January, Foundation attorneys initiated the NLRB’s prosecution of Steelworkers Local 832 for illegally seizing months of dues from Kentucky employee Melva Hernandez, the news release said.

Mix urged Essity to not follow through on the Steelworkers request to terminate Wenske.

"Essity officials should not become complicit in Steelworkers bosses' illegal scheme, and Foundation attorneys will fight this and any further attempts to violate Ms. Wenske's right to abstain from union activity," said Mix.

With the unlawful termination threat dropped, Wenske will be able to remain at Essity.

Reach Jelissa Burns at 920-226-4241 or jburns1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @burns_jelissa or on Instagram at burns_jelissa.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Steelworkers Union drops termination threat to Essity employee