International Union of the United Ass'n of Journeymen & Apprentices of the Plumbing & Pipefitting Industry, Local Unions Nos. 141, 229, 681, & 706 v. National Labor Relations Board

The specific question posed by this case is whether employees who are not members of a union can be required to pay their fair share of grievance costs and other collective bargaining expenses incurred by a union on their behalf without thereby becoming “members” of the union, as membership is defined by federal labor law. Congress has never addressed this question, and the Supreme Court has explicitly left it open. The answer given by the majority runs against the grain of federal labor policy and finds no support in the legislative history of the statute from which that answer is said to…