And further, most employees do not realize that unions’ internal rules and regulations often provide the unions with the power to: a) issue monetary fines against employees who do not “toe the union line,” and b) sue those same employees in state court to collect those fines. Most employees do not realize that by joining a union, they are agreeing to be bound by the union’s internal rules and regulations (which are the union’s constitution and by-laws). Union Discipline Must Be Based Upon Voluntary, Formal Union Membership This article is designed to instruct both the employee and the practicing attorney about the rights of employees who choose to take some action contrary to the wishes or dictates of a union - such as returning to work during a strike - and on the obligations imposed by federal and state law upon the union if it attempts to levy internal fines or otherwise discipline employees who violate union rules.
#Unions make it almost impossible to discipline employees full
(5) Unfortunately, many employees are misled into believing, either tacitly or through outright misrepresentations, that they are required as a condition of employment to join the union and pay full dues as a condition of employment. This “right to refrain” includes: a) the right to refrain from joining the union in the first place (3) b) the right to resign from union membership at any time, and thereby escape any post-resignation internal union fines or discipline (4) and c) the right to stop paying full union dues and instead pay only a reduced “financial core fee” which excludes the union’s political and non-collective bargaining expenditures. Less well known, however, is employees’ right to refrain from supporting the union. On the one hand, it is common knowledge that employees have the right to join and assist unions. Unfortunately, most employees do not know or clearly understand their choices and legal alternatives vis-a-vis the union. (2) In a diverse society such as ours, it is hardly surprising that individual employees’ opinions frequently differ from those of the labor union officials charged with representing their interests, and that many employees will not want to join the union or support it. Whether they know it or not, employees in a unionized workplace have a choice to make: they can join and support the labor union that represents their bargaining unit, or they can choose to refrain from joining and supporting the union.
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