Opinion ID: 543670
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sufficiency of UBC Board approval

Text: 18 The UBC next argues that the dues increase proposed in Option A was permissible under LMRDA Sec. 101(a)(3)(B) because it was previously approved by the UBC Board. See 29 U.S.C. Sec. 411(a)(3)(B)(iii). In support of this argument, the UBC relies principally on the Ninth Circuit's decision in Mori v. International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, 653 F.2d 1279 (9th Cir.1981). 1 19 In Mori, the Ninth Circuit considered whether LMRDA Sec. 101(a)(3)(B) permitted the convention of an international union to establish minimum local union dues for members of a single craft within its affiliated local unions. Id. at 1280. The court held that this action was authorized by section 101(a)(3)(B)(i), which permits an international labor organization to raise dues by majority vote of the delegates voting at a regular convention of the labor organization. See 29 U.S.C. Sec. 411(a)(3)(B)(i). In reaching this conclusion, the court found that section 101(a)(3) was not intended to displace an international union's traditional authority to set dues payable by its members to their local unions, Mori, 653 F.2d at 1283-84; see Ranes, 317 F.2d at 917-18, but also recognized that this authority was not unlimited and that Congress had intended it to be exercised in a democratic manner that protects union members from arbitrary, exploitative or discriminatory action by the international union. See Mori, 653 F.2d at 1284-85. 20 Our concern in this case is whether the procedures followed by the UBC adequately protected the Colorado union members' democratic rights as required by LMRDA Sec. 101(a)(3)(B). While this standard is generally met when an international union raises dues across-the-board for all of its affiliated union members, see Ranes, 317 F.2d at 917; White v. Local No. 207 of Laborer's Int'l Union, 387 F.Supp. 53, 56 (W.D.La.1974), an attempt by an international union to impose increased dues on only a minority of its membership requires more careful scrutiny. See White, 387 F.Supp. at 56. In Mori, which concerned just such a dues increase for a minority of the international union's overall membership, the Ninth Circuit concluded that Congress' concern for democratic processes had been satisfied because the minority union members had had delegates present and active at the union convention that approved the challenged dues increase, the evidence established that many of these affected members supported the selective dues increase and there was no other reason in the record to distrust the democratic process at work at the convention. Mori, 653 F.2d at 1284-85. The undisputed facts in this case, however, are significantly different. Here, the UBC sought to impose a dues increase on a minority of its membership that had repeatedly rejected just such an increase through democratic votes conducted by its governing labor organization, the District Council. The UBC body seeking to overturn this result, the UBC Board, included no representatives from the District Council or the Colorado local unions. Instead, it was composed of fifteen members, all of whom were either UBC officers or district representatives elected at the UBC's convention by vote of all of the delegates. The Board member deemed to represent UBC's Colorado union members was in fact a member of a Nebraska local union. Under these circumstances, it cannot be said that the individual members of the Colorado Carpenters unions were allowed to participate in the UBC Board's decision to increase their dues in the manner required by Congress in LMRDA Sec. 101(a)(3)(B). 2 See Brown, 343 F.2d at 882-83. 21 This conviction is reinforced by our agreement with the district court that only the governing body of the District Council is empowered under LMRDA Sec. 101(a)(3)(B) to raise the dues payable solely by its members. This conclusion flows from the language of the statute, which provides that a nonlocal labor organization may raise the dues paid by its members by majority vote of delegates at its convention, by majority vote of the membership itself or, at least on an interim basis, by majority vote of its governing body. See 29 U.S.C. Sec. 411(a)(3)(B). In each case, however, the statute makes it clear that the increased dues must be enacted by the relevant body of such labor organization, that is the organization whose members will be required to pay the increased dues. See id. This reading of the statute is not, as the UBC claims, inconsistent with the cases affirming an international union's authority to establish dues payable to affiliated local unions, see Ranes, 317 F.2d at 917; Denov v. Chicago Fed'n of Musicians, Local 10-208, 703 F.2d 1034, 1042 (7th Cir.1983), because these cases each involved an across-the-board dues increase for all members of the international union. See id. This interpretation of the statute is also consistent with Mori's holding that international union convention delegates may vote a dues increase for a minority of union members because the affected members in that case were not, as here, all members of a separate and distinct labor organization, see Gordon v. Laborers' Int'l Union, 490 F.2d 133, 135 (10th Cir.1973) (district council constitutes labor organization under LMRDA), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 836, 95 S.Ct. 63, 42 L.Ed.2d 62 (1974), but rather were members of a specific craft who apparently were dispersed throughout the international union's affiliated locals. See Mori, 653 F.2d at 1280, 1284. Thus, the dues increase in Mori was again an across-the-board increase applicable to all members of the international union who qualified and was not, as here, a dues increase imposed solely on members of a distinct labor organization.