New filings detail that UFCW bosses cornered employee in bathroom and engaged in other intimidation tactics ahead of vote on forced-dues requirements

Washington, DC (January 27, 2026) – Nora Ricse, an employee of MOM’s Organic Market in College Park, MD, is asking a federal labor board to rerun a “deauthorization election” she and her colleagues requested to strip United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union bosses of their power to force workers to pay dues. In a brief filed with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, she charges that union officials interfered with the vote by subjecting MOM’s employees to intimidation and coercion to join the union in the lead-up to the election.

Although MOM’s employees voted nearly 5-to-1 to block the UFCW union from having forced-dues power, this was insufficient for Ricse’s effort to prevail because federal law provides that a majority of an entire work unit must vote to deauthorize a union. In contrast, only a majority of those participating in a vote are needed to bring a union into a workplace.

Ricse’s objections, filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), detail the same conduct that MOM’s employee J-quan Tingling is charging UFCW union officials with in unfair labor practice charges before the NLRB. Tingling, who is also receiving free Foundation legal aid, maintains in his charges that a UFCW union agent cornered him in a bathroom to coerce him into signing a union membership card. He also reports that UFCW operatives falsely told him that union membership is a condition of employment, and rebuffed his multiple requests to be left alone or to take the union documents home so he could at least read them. His charges state that he discussed with his coworkers the confrontations he had with union bosses.

“The concern that the Union official’s conduct compromised laboratory conditions and the ultimate integrity of the election is also heightened where, as here, there is a possibility that other employees” acted on the belief that union officials could carry out their threats, Ricse’s objections brief says.

Ricse’s filing cites other NLRB cases in which election results were set aside because union officials threatened workers into signing union cards, and exhorts the Board to administer a rerun election. “The Board would seriously prejudice [Ricse] and her colleagues by denying them access to a free and fair election within this context,” the brief says.

UFCW Officials Imposed Contract Over Workers’ Objections

MOM’s Organic employees pushed for a deauthorization vote after UFCW Local 400 union officials ratified a contract that binds all employees at MOM’s Organic – even though a majority of the employees voted to reject that contract. In doing this, union officials cited the UFCW’s constitution, which apparently requires union chiefs to ratify a contract over workers’ objections if less than two-thirds of the workers authorize a strike.

Maryland lacks Right to Work protections for employees, meaning union officials can impose contracts that require workers to pay dues or be fired. While UFCW officials claim that they won’t enforce their forced-dues privileges, the union’s contract contains a clause that makes paying union dues a condition of employment.

“I and many of my colleagues at MOM’s don’t support UFCW union officials, but we are compelled by law to deal with them,” commented Ricse ahead of the vote. “We are requesting this vote so we can ensure our hard-earned money doesn’t flow into union bosses’ pockets, regardless of what they’ve told us is going to happen.”

Workers’ Opposition to UFCW Actions Continues

Ricse’s and Tingling’s actions concerning the deauthorization election are just the latest skirmish in an ongoing conflict between UFCW union officials and MOM’s Organic employees. In November 2024, College Park MOM’s employees requested a vote to remove the union entirely (also known as a “decertification vote”).

“If MOM’s Organic employees needed any reason to believe that UFCW officials won’t honor their promise to refrain from imposing forced dues on the whole workplace, the intimidation tactics detailed in these employee charges more than fit the bill,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “It’s now clearer than ever that if MOM’s Organic employees want any chance to escape from being forced to pay dues to the UFCW hierarchy, they need to be able to vote in a free and fair deauthorization election.

“If UFCW union officials really wanted workers to have a free choice on whether to pay dues, they should have supported – not opposed – the workers’ effort to have a deauthorization vote,” Mix added. “But the UFCW’s priorities appear to be power and control, as shown by these new charges and the UFCW’s constitution, which requires union bosses to ratify forced-dues contracts over the objections of workers.”