Opinion ID: 2150565
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Is the union limited to suspending or expelling a member who has failed to pay a fine

Text: This is, of course, a request to rehear what was determined, contrary to the defendant's preferences, in United Automobile, Aircraft & Agricultural Implement Workers v. Woychik (1958), 5 Wis. 2d 528, 93 N. W. 2d 336, and Local 248 UAW v. Natzke (1967), 36 Wis. 2d 237, 153 N. W. 2d 602. We reiterate what was said in Natzke, at page 251. We therein concluded, citing with approval Jackson v. Cleveland (1865), 19 Wis. 422 (), and quoting 17 Am. Jur. 2d, Contracts, p. 906, sec. 445: `Although the parties may, in their contract, specify a remedy for a breach thereof, that specification does not exclude other legally recognized remedies. A contract will not be construed as taking away a common-law remedy unless that result is imperatively required.' The defendant, however, challenges the wisdom of the Natzke rule, primarily on the rationale explicated in a comment, Court Enforcement of Union Fines, appearing in 25 Washington & Lee Law Rev. (1968), 273. This article equates the obligations assumed by a union member to those of one who purchases a policy of insurance, in that, the commentator contends, the union member has no opportunity to bargain as to the terms of the contract. He therefore concludes that contracts should be construed against the union, and, hence, implied legal remedies, such as collection of fines in civil courts, cannot be pursued. The validity of this position depends upon the premise asserted that a union member has no opportunity to bargain the terms that bind him. No evidence of this lack of bargaining power is put forth, and the assertion is contrary to the facts of this case. The resolution herein was adopted after the defendant voluntarily became a member of the union and was adopted as a resolution upon the vote of the members at a meeting at which Scofield could appear, express his opinion, and cast his vote. While this is not the freedom of contract that exists between two individuals, it is the same freedom to acquiesce or dissent that is afforded any member of a club or association. There is no evidence that the union was the dictator of the resolution. The evidence is to the contrary. Certainly, this is unlike an insurance contract, where the insured has no voice whatsoever in contractual terms imposed. Nor must it be forgotten, as was emphasized repeatedly in the NLRB proceedings and in the United States Supreme Court, Scofield could have escaped the burdens of union membership by either not joining the union or by resigning at such time as union policies displeased him and when he still had the standing to resign. Scofield would have it both waysall the privileges and prerogatives that he apparently associated with union membership but also a complete exoneration from the liabilities he agreed to when he joined the union and agreed to abide by its regulations. We are satisfied that Natzke was correctly and properly decided.