Opinion ID: 684065
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Union-Security Agreements Under the NLRA

Text: 4 Section 8(a)(3) of the NLRA permits an employer and the employees' exclusive bargaining representative to enter into an agreement requiring all employees in the bargaining unit to pay periodic union dues and initiation fees as a condition of continued employment, whether or not the employees wish to become full union members. See 29 U.S.C. Sec. 158(a)(3) (1988). While section 8(a)(3) generally makes it an unfair labor practice for an employer by discrimination in regard to hire or tenure of employment ... to encourage or discourage membership in any labor organization, id., that section contains two provisos authorizing union-security agreements between employers and unions. The first proviso of section 8(a)(3) authorizes a union and an employer to contract to require as a condition of employment that all employees in the bargaining unit establish and maintain membership in the union. Id. The second proviso, however, mandates that such membership must, inter alia, be equally available to all and require employees to do no more than tender the periodic dues and the initiation fees uniformly required. Id. 5 Thus, despite the broad meaning that might be implied by the term membership in the first proviso of section 8(a)(3), the Supreme Court has held that the second proviso of that section mandates that such union membership is whittled down to its financial core. NLRB v. General Motors Corp., 373 U.S. 734, 742, 83 S.Ct. 1453, 1459, 10 L.Ed.2d 670 (1963). It is well settled that causing or attempting to cause an employer to discharge an employee for breach of any union membership requirements other than failure to pay the financial core obligations of uniform initiation fees and dues violates the Act, specifically sections 8(b)(2) 1 and 8(b)(1)(A). 2 See Union Starch & Ref. Co., 87 N.L.R.B. 779, 787 (1949), enforced, 186 F.2d 1008 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 342 U.S. 815, 72 S.Ct. 30, 96 L.Ed. 617 (1951). In its most recent pronouncement in this area, inCommunications Workers v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735, 745, 108 S.Ct. 2641, 2648-49, 101 L.Ed.2d 634 (1988), the Supreme Court held that section 8(a)(3) does not oblige employees to support union activities beyond those germane to collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance adjustment. In this way, the Court limited employee obligations under union-security agreements to comport with the congressional purpose of eliminating the problem of free riders, i.e., employees who would receive the benefits of union representation but refuse to pay their fair share of the costs. See id. at 747-54, 108 S.Ct. at 2650-53.