I
104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3580
To ensure that employees who work under a security agreement that requires
such employees to pay union dues as a condition of employment have
a right to object to the use of their dues for political, legislative, social,
or charitable purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 5, 1996
Mr. FAWELL (for himself, Mr. GINGRICH, Mr. ARMEY, Mr. DELAY, Mr.
BOEHNER, 
Mr. 
BALLENGER, 
Mr. 
BARRETT
of 
Nebraska, 
Mr.
CUNNINGHAM, Mr. HOEKSTRA, Mr. HUTCHINSON, Mr. KNOLLENBERG,
Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. FUNDERBURK, Mr. GOSS, and Mrs. SEASTRAND), in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Eco-
nomic and Educational Opportunities
A BILL
To ensure that employees who work under a security agree-
ment that requires such employees to pay union dues
as a condition of employment have a right to object
to the use of their dues for political, legislative, social,
or charitable purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Worker Right to Know
Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The United States Supreme Court an-
nounced in the landmark decision, Communications
Workers of America v. Beck (487 U.S. 735), that
employees who work under a union security agree-
ment, and are required to pay union dues as a con-
dition of employment, may not be forced to contrib-
ute through such dues to union-supported political,
legislative, social, or charitable causes with which
they disagree, and may only be required to pay dues
related to collective bargaining, contract administra-
tion, and grievance adjustment necessary to per-
forming the duties of exclusive representation.
(2) Little action has been taken by the National
Labor Relations Board to facilitate the ability of em-
ployees to exercise their right to object to the use of
their union dues for political, legislative, social, or
charitable purposes, or other activities not necessary
to performing the duties of the exclusive representa-
tive of employees in dealing with the employer on
labor-management issues, and the Board only re-
cently issued its first ruling implementing the Beck
decision nearly 8 years after the Supreme Court is-
sued the opinion.
(3) The evolution of the right enunciated in the
Beck decision has diminished its meaningfulness be-
cause employees are forced to forego critical work-
place rights bearing on their economic well-being in
order to object to the use of their dues for purposes
unrelated to collective bargaining, to rely on the very
organization they are challenging to make the deter-
mination regarding the amount of dues necessary to
the union’s representational function, and do not
have access to clear and concise financial records
that provide an accurate accounting of how union
dues are spent.
SEC. 3. PURPOSE.
The purpose of this Act is to ensure that workers who
are required to pay union dues as a condition of employ-
ment have adequate information about how the money
they pay in dues to a union is spent and to remove obsta-
cles to the ability of working people to exercise their right
to object to the use of their dues for political, legislative,
social, or charitable causes with which they disagree, or
for other activities not necessary to performing the duties
of the exclusive representative of employees in dealing with
the employer on labor-management issues.
SEC. 4. WORKER CHOICE.
(a) RIGHTS OF EMPLOYEES.—Section 7 of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Act is amended by striking ‘‘mem-
bership’’ and all that follows and inserting the following:
‘‘the payment to a labor organization of dues or fees relat-
ed to collective bargaining, contract administration, or
grievance adjustment necessary to performing the duties
of exclusive representation as a condition of employment
as authorized in section 8(a)(3).’’.
(b) UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES.—Section 8(a)(3) of
such Act is amended by striking ‘‘membership therein’’
and inserting ‘‘the payment to such labor organization of
dues or fees related to collective bargaining, contract ad-
ministration, or grievance adjustment necessary to per-
forming the duties of exclusive representation’’.
SEC. 5. WORKER CONSENT.
(a) WRITTEN AGREEMENT.—Section 8 of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Act is amended by adding at the
end the following:
‘‘(h) An employee subject to an agreement between
an employer and a labor organization requiring the pay-
ment of dues or fees to such organization as authorized
in section 8(a)(3) may not be required to pay to such orga-
nization, nor may such organization accept payment of,
any dues or fees not related to collective bargaining, con-
tract administration, or grievance adjustment necessary to
performing the duties of exclusive representation unless
the employee has agreed to pay such dues or fees in a
signed written agreement that must be renewed between
the first day of September and the first day of October
of each year. Such signed written agreement shall include
a ratio, certified by an independent auditor, of the dues
or fees related to collective bargaining, contract adminis-
tration, or grievance adjustment necessary to performing
the duties of exclusive representation and the dues or fees
related to other purposes.’’.
(b) WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT.—Section 302(c)(4) of
the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947 is amended
by inserting before the semicolon the following: ‘‘: Provided
further, That no amount may be deducted for dues unre-
lated to collective bargaining, contract administration, or
grievance adjustment necessary to performing the duties
of exclusive representation unless a written assignment
authorizes such a deduction’’.
SEC. 6. WORKER NOTICE.
Section 8 of the National Labor Relations Act is
amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(i) An employer shall be required to post a notice,
of such size and in such form as the Board shall prescribe,
in conspicuous places in and about its plants and offices,
including all places where notices to employees are cus-
tomarily posted, informing employees of their rights under
section 7 of this Act and clarifying to employees that an
agreement requiring the payment of dues or fees to a labor
organization as a condition of employment as authorized
in subsection (a)(3) may only require that employees pay
to such organization any dues or fees related to collective
bargaining, contract administration, or grievance adjust-
ment necessary to performing the duties of exclusive rep-
resentation. A copy of such notice shall be provided to
each employee not later than 10 days after the first day
of employment.’’.
SEC. 7. WORKER ECONOMIC RIGHTS.
Section 8(b)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act
is amended by inserting after ‘‘therein;’’ the following:
‘‘except that, an employee subject to an agreement be-
tween an employer and a labor organization requiring as
a condition of employment the payment of dues or fees
to such organization as authorized in subsection (a)(3),
who pays such dues or fees, shall have the same right to
participate in the affairs of the organization related to col-
lective bargaining, contract administration, or grievance
adjustment as any member of the organization;’’.
SEC. 8. DISCLOSURE TO WORKERS.
(a) EXPENSES REPORTING.—Section 201(b) of the
Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959
is amended by adding at the end the following new sen-
tence: ‘‘Every labor organization shall be required to at-
tribute and report expenses by function classification in
such detail as necessary to allow its members to determine
whether such expenses were related to collective bargain-
ing, contract administration, or grievance adjustment nec-
essary to performing the duties of exclusive representation
or were related to other purposes.’’.
(b) DISCLOSURE.—Section 201(c) of the Labor-Man-
agement Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 is amend-
ed—
(1) by inserting ‘‘and employees required to pay
any dues or fees to such organization’’ after ‘‘mem-
bers’’; and
(2) inserting ‘‘or employee required to pay any
dues or fees to such organization’’ after ‘‘member’’
each place it appears.
(c) REGULATIONS.—The Secretary of Labor shall
prescribe such regulations as are necessary to carry out
the amendments made by this section not later than 120
days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE.
This Act shall take effect on the date of enactment,
except that the requirements contained in the amendments
made by sections 5 and 6 shall take effect 60 days after
the date of the enactment of this Act.
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