A labor union is an organization that represents a group of workers in a specific trade or profession. A good labor union negotiates more favorable rights and benefits for the class of workers it represents.
In return for helping to create a better work environment, unions expect workers to pay a fee to fund the union's various activities and expenses.
Not all workers, however, want to join a union. For some, the dues might be too high. Others might believe that the key benefits traditionally offered to union members, such as pensions, are underfunded and won't be available when they retire. Still others don’t want to be part of some of the union’s political activities.
Whether you're required to pay union dues depends on the law of the state in which you work and the reasons you do not want to be part of the union.
Unions seek to organize groups of workers to band together and act as a single unit. The idea is that workers have a stronger voice and more power when negotiating with the employer “as one” rather than independently as individuals. Group action is accomplished through a contract called a collective bargaining agreement that the union negotiates with the employer. Some benefits that unions achieve through collective bargaining include:
When it comes to dues, unions argue that they operate on behalf of a bargaining unit or class of employees, all whom benefit from the union’s work. For example, if a union successfully negotiates a safer workplace by requiring the employer to provide helmets to the workforce, all employees will be given helmets, not just the union members. As a result, the union might believe it’s unfair for non-union members to reap the benefits of collective bargaining without paying their share of unions costs.
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is a federal law that covers the relationship shared by unions, employees, and their employers. How this law impacts your situation will mostly depend on the state in which you work. (29 U.S.C. §§ 151-169.)
Under the NLRA and Supreme Court decisions interpreting it, no employee in the United States can be forced to formally join a union and pay full union dues. Some states, however, will uphold agreements between unions and employers that require employees to pay an “agency fee” as a condition of getting and keeping a job. This type of situation is known as an “agency shop” and the agency fee is for union activities that directly benefit all workers, such as costs involved in the collective bargaining process, contract administration, and working through grievances with the employer. Examples of some items that the agency fee should not cover includes expenses associated with the union’s political activities and litigation expenses unrelated to collective bargaining.
The purpose of the agency fee is to prevent free riders—workers who benefit from the union’s activities without paying union dues. An agency fee ensures that all workers pay their fare share for the benefits the union obtains on their behalf.
In theory, this arrangement accommodates the interests of all parties. The union is satisfied because all workers covered by the collective bargaining agreement pay their share of the dues. At the same time, non-union members enjoy the benefits of collective bargaining but don’t feel obligated to participate in union activities and support union positions they don’t agree with. The potential downside for these workers, however, is that they cannot participate in other activities that might impact their rights and benefits, such as attending union meetings and voting in union elections.
Religious discrimination is prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In some agency shop states, workers can opt out of paying the agency fee if being a part of the union runs against their sincerely held religious beliefs. These workers, however, are often required to redirect the fees they would have paid to a charitable organization.
The NLRA permits states to pass laws that prohibit agency shop agreements. These laws are called “right to work” laws and states that enact them are known as “right to work” states. If you are employed in a right to work state, you cannot be forced to join a union or pay any union fee whatsoever. It’s your choice whether to join the union and your employer cannot fire you or penalize you for failing to do so. Currently, a slight majority of states have right to work laws.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court held that agency shop fees as applied to public employees are unconstitutional under the First Amendment. In that case, the plaintiff was employed by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. The plaintiff did not agree with many of the union’s positions, including those taken in collective bargaining. He argued that being part of a union is a political act or a form of political advocacy and that forcing him to pay an agency fee violated his right to free speech under the First Amendment. The Supreme Court agreed and, as a result, public employers can no longer require their employees to pay any union fee whatsoever, even in agency shop states. (Janus v. AFSCME, 585 U.S. __ (2018).)
Although the practical impact of this decision remains to be seen, many believe that it will have a chilling effect on unions, especially given that most states already have right to work laws on the books.
