Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-1466_2b3j.pdf
Page Number: 8

Cite as:  585 U. S. ____ (2018) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

683–684  (1944).  Protection  of  the  employees’  interests  is 
placed in the hands of the union, and therefore the union
is  required  by  law  to  provide  fair  representation  for  all 
employees  in  the  unit,  members  and  nonmembers  alike. 
§315/6(d).

Employees  who  decline  to  join  the  union  are  not  as­
sessed  full union  dues but  must  instead  pay  what  is  gen­
erally called an “agency fee,” which amounts to a percent­
age of the union dues.  Under Abood, nonmembers may be
charged for the portion of union dues attributable to activ­
ities that are “germane to [the union’s] duties as collective-
bargaining  representative,”  but  nonmembers  may  not  be
required  to  fund  the  union’s  political  and  ideological  pro­
jects.  431 U. S., at 235; see id., at 235–236.  In labor-law 
parlance,  the  outlays  in  the  first  category  are  known  as
“chargeable”  expenditures,  while  those  in  the  latter  are
labeled “nonchargeable.”

Illinois law does not specify in detail which expenditures
are  chargeable  and  which  are  not.    The  IPLRA  provides
that  an  agency  fee  may  compensate  a  union  for  the  costs
incurred  in  “the  collective  bargaining  process,  contract
administration[,]  and  pursuing  matters  affecting  wages, 
hours[,] and conditions of employment.”  §315/6(e); see also 
§315/3(g).  Excluded  from  the  agency-fee  calculation  are
union  expenditures  “related  to  the  election  or  support  of 
any candidate for political office.”  §315/3(g); see §315/6(e). 
Applying this standard, a union categorizes its expendi­
tures as chargeable or nonchargeable and thus determines
a  nonmember’s  “proportionate  share,”  §315/6(e);  this 
determination is then audited; the amount of the “propor­
tionate  share”  is  certified  to  the  employer;  and  the  em­
ployer  automatically  deducts  that  amount  from  the  non­
members’ wages.  See ibid.; App. to Pet. for Cert. 37a; see 
also  Harris  v.  Quinn,  573  U. S.  ___,  ___–___  (2014)  (slip 
op., at 19–20) (describing this process).  Nonmembers need 
not be asked, and they are not required to consent before