High Court Lets Non-Union Employees Withhold Fees : Worker Need Pay Only for Bargaining Costs

The Supreme Court, in a high-stakes defeat for organized labor, made it easier today for millions of non-union workers to withhold financial support from the unions that represent them in collective bargaining.

The court, by a 5-3 vote, ruled that non-union employees of private employers may not be forced to pay the equivalent of union dues if some of that money is used for activities not directly related to collective bargaining.

Using compulsory fees paid by non-union employees under so-called “agency shop” contracts to pursue a union’s political goals violates federal labor law, the court said.

Contracts Require Same Fees

Thousands of labor contracts require workers who choose not to join the unions representing them to pay the same amount in fees as members pay in dues.

Although federal labor law allows states to pass “right to work” laws barring such agency-fee requirements, 29 states representing two-thirds of the nation’s population have chosen not to pass such laws.

In those states, more than 90% of the collective bargaining agreements to which a key federal labor law applies carry agency-fee requirements. The justices were told that 6 million workers are covered by such contracts.

The high court in 1977 ruled that public employees, those who work for some governmental entity, have the right to withhold that portion of their non-member union fees used by the union for activities not directly related to collective bargaining.

Private Employers Included

Today, the court ruled that employees of private employers have the same right.

The ruling could deprive many unions of significant portions of their revenue. And it likely will require many unions to establish costly bookkeeping procedures to assure that agency fees paid by non-members are not used for anything but collective bargaining.

Justice William J. Brennan, who wrote the decision, was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Byron R. White, Thurgood Marshall and John Paul Stevens. Justices Harry A. Blackmun, Sandra Day O’Connor and Antonin Scalia dissented. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy did not participate in the case.

Twenty employees of AT&T; in Maryland sued the Communications Workers of America union in 1976, contending that they should have the right to withhold a portion of their non-member fees to avoid the involuntary subsidizing of political positions with which they did not agree.

Important Rights Decision

In another ruling today that was the justices’ most important civil rights decision of the year, the court made it easier for workers to prove their bosses are guilty of illegal discrimination. In the ruling, the justices expanded the way employees can use statistical evidence to prove bias.

The court, by an 8-0 vote, ruled that Clara Watson, a former bank employee in Fort Worth, improperly was barred from using statistics in trying to prove she was discriminated against because she is black.

Watson’s lawsuit challenged her employer’s subjective decision-making regarding promotions.