Fees OK For Organizing, Court Rules

January/February 2003 IBEW Journal

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand an appeals court decision that upheld that union fees collected from nonmembers can be used in organizing efforts. The high court ruling leaves no question that unions may charge nonmembers covered by a union-security clause for the costs of organizing in the same competitive market.

The case, Mulder v. National Labor Relations Board, was brought by the anti-union National Right-to-Work Legal Defense Foundation, representing workers who were covered by union contracts won by the United Food and Commercial Workers at City Markets in Colorado and Meijer in Michigan. Relying on the Supreme Court’s 1988 Beck v. Communications Workers of America decision, which held that nonmembers should not have to pay for organizing activities, the plaintiff said being forced to pay for union organizing activities was a free speech violation.

In 1999, the NLRB rejected that argument, ruling that organizing new members is vital to a union’s ability to win improved wages and benefits, which are enjoyed by all workers covered under a union contract, regardless of membership status. The Supreme Court agreed on November 12, and allowed that decision to stand. 

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