Natera Carter, an employee at Parker O-Ring & Engineered Seals in Lynchburg, Virginia, has filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a decertification election aimed at removing the International Chemical Workers Union Council (ICWUC) Local 845C from her workplace. Carter received free legal assistance from attorneys with the National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation.
The NLRB is responsible for overseeing elections that allow workers to either certify or decertify unions under the National Labor Relations Act. Carter’s petition was signed by a majority of her 51 coworkers, which surpasses the threshold required for an NLRB-supervised secret ballot vote. The election is scheduled for February 25, 2026, and will include all hourly production staff, lab technicians, maintenance personnel, shipping and receiving workers, and quality inspection employees at the facility. According to the petition, ICWUC Local 845C has represented employees at this site since 1980.
“The workers who decided to bring the union into this workplace are no longer here and now it is time for current employees to have our say,” stated Carter. “We’ve seen the union up close and now we’re joining together to remove it.”
Virginia is one of 26 states with Right to Work laws that make union membership and dues payment voluntary. However, even in these states, unions can still be granted exclusive bargaining rights over all employees in a unit regardless of individual support.
“Virginia’s popular Right to Work law means union officials cannot have workers fired for refusing to join or pay dues to the union, but even in Virginia, workers are forced under union monopoly ‘representation’ they don’t want and never asked for,” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “This case and the many others like it are a reminder that in addition to the overwhelming majority of workers who choose to remain nonunion, countless others are currently forced under a union monopoly they oppose. That’s just plain wrong.”
The National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation provides free legal aid as well as educational resources on labor rights issues such as compulsory unionism. The organization focuses on protecting employee rights through litigation and public education efforts nationwide (https://www.nrtw.org/blog/).
