Recent years have seen some exceptional advancements in workplace freedom. As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 ruling in Harris v. Quinn and its 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME, all public employees have recognized, First Amendment protections against being compelled to financially support a union as a condition of keeping their jobs.
Additionally, multiple states have moved to give employees more control over their workplace representation.
Unfortunately, union-represented private-sector employees in the 23 states lacking right-to-work protections can still be compelled to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. And while public employees now have constitutional protections against forced union payments, union-backed legislation in Congress — the “Protecting the Right to Organize Act” — would eliminate the right-to-work laws on the books in 27 states and allow unions to impose mandatory dues requirements on private-sector workers around the country.
Despite union efforts to compel dues payment, all union-represented private-sector workers have the ability to make dues payment optional in their workplace through a little-known proceeding before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
While federal law governing private-sector unions permits a union and employer to include a union security provision in the collective bargaining agreement requiring the payment of union dues/fees as a condition of employment (29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(3)), the law also establishes a process by which employees can vote to deauthorize the union security clause and remove it from the union contract.
29 U.S.C. § 159(e) and 29 CFR § 101.26 provide that, if at least 30 percent of employees in a unionized workplace petition the NLRB to remove the union security provision, the board must conduct a secret ballot election for employees to vote on whether to remove the provision and make dues payment optional.
If a majority of voting employees support removing the mandatory dues provision, the clause is excised from the collective bargaining agreement. All other terms of the contract remain unaffected.
These rescission or deauthorization petitions — designated “UD petitions” by the NLRB — may be filed at any time, as long as a similar vote was not conducted in the prior 12 months.
It is best to file such petitions using the NLRB’s e-filing system.
UD petitions must be accompanied by evidence showing the support of at least 30 percent of union-represented employees in the workplace. NLRB regulations note that this evidence is “usually in the form of cards signed by individual employees authorizing the filing of such a petition.” Fill-in-the-blank petition cards are available here.
Polling consistently shows that large majorities of Americans favor right-to-work protections that make union membership optional. Even if a majority of employees in a given workplace support unionization, a majority may also oppose mandatory dues.
If you’d like to learn more about your rights or receive guidance in filing a UD petition with the NLRB, please contact the Freedom Foundation for assistance.
