Formal Union Membership Cannot be ‘Required’

On Union Discipline and Employee Rights

Unfortunately, most employees do not know or clearly understand their choices and legal alternatives vis-a-vis the union. On the one hand, it is common knowledge that employees have the right to join and assist unions. Less well known, however, is employees’ right to refrain from supporting the union. This “right to refrain” includes: a) the right to refrain from joining the union in the first place;(3) b) the right to resign from union membership at any time, and thereby escape any post-resignation internal union fines or discipline;(4) and c) the right to stop paying full union dues and instead pay only a reduced “financial core fee” which excludes the union’s political and non-collective bargaining expenditures.(5) Unfortunately, many employees are misled into believing, either tacitly or through outright misrepresentations, that they are required as a condition of employment to join the union and pay full dues as a condition of employment.(6)

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Employees often mistakenly believe that they must become formal members of the union or be discharged.⁽⁹⁾ Most individuals in the workplace do not realize that they cannot be required to become or remain a member of a union as a condition of employment. In Right to Work states,⁽¹⁰⁾ employees’ “right to refrain” is complete, as they need not tender dues or even a reduced “financial core fee” to the union. In states that have not enacted Right to Work laws, the union and the employer may lawfully require some degree of financial support for the union as a condition of employment, i.e., the payment of the reduced “financial core fee.”

However, even in those non-Right to Work states, formal union membership cannot be required, regardless of the wording in the collective bargaining agreement.⁽¹¹⁾
Accordingly, there is a critical distinction between voluntary, formal membership in a labor organization and “financial core fee” payor or “agency fee” payor status: voluntary union members are subject to internal union discipline and fines, while nonmembers (e.g., “financial core payers” or “agency fee payers”) are not.

Great Article – read it all here.

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