DATE: Tuesday, April 15, 1997               TAG: 9704150242

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   42 lines

UPS DRIVER FILES COMPLAINT VS. TEAMSTERS OVER UNION DUES

A United Parcel Service driver from Newport News, with the help of a national labor union watchdog, has filed a complaint against a Teamsters union local for deducting dues from his paycheck after he tried to leave the union.

James Bryan Bowyer, 39, told Teamsters Local 822 recently he wished to leave the union, and requested that the union stop deducting dues from his paycheck.

On March 21, David A. Vinson, president of the local, told Bowyer his request had been denied because Bowyer had missed a 15-day window in which he is allowed to withdraw.

However, Vinson said Monday that Bowyer has since been let out of the union and the local has directed UPS to stop deducting dues from his paycheck.

``I understand the laws of the state of Virginia,'' Vinson said. ``I do not wish someone to be a member who does not want to be a member.''

Last week, Bowyer was listening to a radio interview with an official of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, and called the foundation's number broadcast during the show. Foundation spokesman Tim McConville said the group quickly agreed to represent Bowyer.

The nonprofit group, based in Springfield, Va., is handling more than 400 cases in which it assists employees with actions against unions, McConville said.

Virginia is one of 21 states considered ``right to work'' states. That means state law requires that employees be able to choose whether to join a union and may not lose a job or get a lesser job if they do not join a union.

In Bowyer's complaint, filed with the National Labor Relations Board regional office in Baltimore, he charges that the Teamsters tried to threaten and coerce him to prevent him from leaving the union. The coercion included a warning that he would have to pay a ``service fee.''

Vinson said there was no coercion. He said Bowyer wanted to leave the Teamsters because the international union supports President Bill Clinton.

Bowyer could not be reached for comment.

A charge filed against a union can be handled by the NLRB in as little as 30-60 days. It can decide the complaint is worthy and begin an investigation, or dismiss it as groundless.

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