Opinion ID: 684065
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Ferriso's Petition for Review

Text: 24 Petitioner Ferriso, the original charging party, claims that the Supreme Court's decisions in Beck and Pattern Makers' League v. NLRB, 473 U.S. 95, 105 S.Ct. 3064, 87 L.Ed.2d 68 (1985), require a different result in this case. Specifically, he contends that those decisions compel the conclusion that union-security agreements such as the one here at issue are not just ambiguous but rather facially unlawful. In Pattern Makers, the Court, embracing the NLRA's policy of voluntary unionism, held that unions cannot require full union membership as a condition of employment and cannot restrict employees' right to resign from membership in the union. Id. at 106-07, 105 S.Ct. at 3071. And, as noted above, the Court in Beck held that unions may not exact from unwilling employees, pursuant to union-security agreements, sums used to finance activities that go beyond the union's collective bargaining and representational obligations. 487 U.S. at 745, 108 S.Ct. at 2648. Based on these rulings, Ferriso argues that any union-security agreement requiring membership in the union in good standing, or even simply membership in the union, is facially invalid. 25 Ferriso's contention is without merit. Contrary to his claim, Pattern Makers and Beck in no way compel the conclusion that union-security agreements requiring membership in the union in good standing are unlawful on their face. Beck speaks only to the level of dues an employee may lawfully be required to pay under a union-security agreement. Pattern Makers stands only for the proposition that unions may not require full union membership as a condition of employment and may not restrict an employee's right to resign from full membership in the union. Neither case has anything to do with what language is permissible in a union-security agreement and, as such, neither case supports Ferriso's claim. Furthermore, there is absolutely nothing in the record of this case to indicate that the Union has ever required full membership as a condition of employment or that the Union has ever exacted from unwilling unit employees sums unrelated to the Union's representational and collective bargaining obligations. Indeed, Ferriso himself resigned from Union membership nearly 20 years ago (with no adverse repercussions) and subsequently secured a reduction in his dues payments. Ferriso's claims are much ado about nothing.