Exclusive representation and mandatory collective bargaining are central to American labor relations law. Exclusive representation is the imposition of union recognition on the basis of majority vote among workers. A union that wins such an election at a firm represents all the employees who are eligible to vote, even those who vote against the union. Mandatory bargaining means that an employer is forced to bargain with a union that is certified by majority vote, and during bargaining the employer must compromise with the union. Apologists for exclusive representation argue that it is merely workplace democracy.
Mandatory bargaining is necessary because the whole purpose of union recognition is bargaining.
Recognition without bargaining is meaningless. These apologists conveniently forget that democracy is a form of government, not a rule for private decisionmaking. Mandatory submission to the will of a majority makes sense in the political, but not the private, sphere of human action. Exclusive representation and mandatory bargaining violate freedom of association. To be represented by a union is to associate with it.