Court Opinion

ID: 9449513
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:14:17.178054+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:52.054991
License: Public Domain

BURGER, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the court’s opinion but I do so with the same reluctance expressed *745by Judge Hart in the District Court and by Judge Miller. Even if the union’s position conforms to the letter of the applicable provisions of its own internal governance, its action surely violates the spirit of the relationship between a union and its members. For an insignificant violation a long time union member is “disciplined” to the point of near destruction, perhaps to “make an example of him.”
Recently we pointed out in another context1 that the requirement of fair dealing between a union and its members is fiduciary in nature and arises out of the large degree of dependence of the individual employee on the union and the large powers vested in the union. The power of a union over its members is enormous and in all too many occasions, this being one of them, that power is exercised with arbitrariness incompatible not only with the fiduciary obligation of the union but also with basic standards of fairness. As a fiduciary the actions of a union toward its members must reflect a moral equivalent of its great power over the daily lives and affairs of its members.2 Some unions seek to justify harsh action toward members by the necessities of survival and I would not minimize the importance of continuity. But a union’s obligation to survive is not to be confused with the comparable rights and powers of sovereign states; a union is not a sovereign but a servant. I suggest this is implicit in what we recently said of the rights of the individual:
“From the beginning of his employment, the union which can require his membership or command his discharge is therefore charged with an obligation of fair dealing which includes the duty to inform the employee of his rights and obligations so that the employee may take alll necessary steps to protect his job.. “A union may not treat as adversaries either its members or those potential members whose continued employment is dependent upon union membership. * * * International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers v. National Labor Relations Board, 113 U.S.App.D.C. 342, 346, 307 F.2d 679, 683, cert. denied, 371 U.S. 936 [83 S.Ct. 307, 9 L.Ed.2d 270] (1962).”

. International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers v. National Labor Relations Board, 113 U.S.App.D.C. 342, 307 F.2d 679, cert. denied, 371 U.S. 936, 83 S.Ct. 307, 9 L.Ed.2d 270 (1962).

. See Interesting article and cases collected in Summers, Individual Rights In Collective Agreements and Arbitration, 37 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 362 (1962); Cox, Rights Under a Labor Agreement, 69 Harv.L.Rev. 601 (1956); Hanslowe, Individual Rights in Collective Labor Relations, 45 Cornell L.Q. 25 (1959).