Evening star., 1963-05-13

The high court made thu
railroad unions may not use pi
for political purposes over his
expressed objection.
Justice Brennan. who de-
lvered the courts = to = ]
opinion today, said such a plan
would avoid prolonged and ex-
'ensive litigation between un-
ons and dissenting workers
)ver such matters. He said
hat today's case. for example,
has been before the courts for
10 years and is not over yet.
1T is a lesson Of our ma
sional history Of industrial re-
ations that resort to litigation
to settle the rights Of labor Or
ganizations and employees very
often proves unsatisfactory, I"
Justice Brennan said. The
court sent today's case back to
North Carolina courts for fur
ther proceedings.
Has Been EnjOined
A State court, In today's
case, had enjoined q group of
Southern Railway brotherhoods
from enforcing union shop con-
tracts against nonmembers who
objected to the use Of dues
for political purposes.
The State court, however,
had said the brotherhoods
would be permitted to collect
the share Of dues money they
could show the court would be
used for collective bargaining
rather than politics.
The Supreme Court, in a
1851 Georgia case, had said
that unions were barred from
collecting compulsory dues over
workers objections under a
union-shop agreement for use
for political purposes.
Manifest Opposition
Justice Brennan, in today's
opinion, applied the principle
of the earlier case to the Sou
thern Railway controversy.
Justice Brennan said it is
enough for q worker to mani
fest opposition to any political
expenditures by a union to
avoid having his dues used for
such purposes. He said it would
be impracticable to require
workers to specify each dis
tinct union political expendi-
ture to which he objects.
However, Justice Brennan
said, such objection to political
dues use is not to be assumed.
He said such objections must
be affirmatively made known
by the dissenting employe.
Today's opinion said, that
the lower courts injunction had
been too broad and might in
terfere with the unions per-
formance of functions placed
upon them by the Railway
Labor Act.
Justice Brennan said the
workers should not have been
granted interim relief by the
lower court until final judg-
ment in their favor had been
entered.
Sums Held Due
He said the workers must
pay to the unions all sums re-
quired under the union-shop
contract. However, Justice
Brennan said the lower court
now must determine what per-
centage Of total union expendi-
lures are political and must
frame a new decree taking this
determination into account.
He said the new decree
should not infringe the unions
right to expend funds for COL
lective bargaining purposes and
to expend exactions from nom
dissenting workers in support
Of political activities.
In discussing the possible
form Of the new decree, Justice
Brennan said the order should
provide for refunds Of that part
Of compulsory dues destined
for political use and for a re-
duction in dues Of the same
amount in the future.
He stated that the high
court recognized that practical
difficulties may be involved
in framing a decree OF this
type, since the union budget
devoted to political activities
may not be constant"
Voluntary Plan
This difficulty. Justice Bren-
nan said, should encourage"
the unions involved to con-
slider the adoption Of some
voluntary plan affordiug an
internal union remedy so that
objecting workers would not
have to resort to litigation TO
assert objections, to political
use Of dues.
Justice Harlan, in a dissent
ing opinion, said the Supreme
Court, in its ruling in 1861 on
political dues use. made 1t clear
a worker must express objec-
ton to particular political ex-
penditures TO obtain relief. To-