Quick answers on union dues and dues check-off

What are union dues? Dues are the periodic financial contributions that unions exact from their members to finance programs and to cover operating expenses. To unions, the term union security includes financial security.

How are unions entitled to collect dues? The right of unions to collect dues from their members is deeply embedded in federal labor law. For example, the section of the National Labor Relations Act which expressly permits union security agreements says that the only reason a union can try to get a worker fired under such an agreement is the worker's failure to pay dues and initiation fees.

On the other hand, federal law also recognizes that the payment of union dues is no small burden to workers. Consequently, the law requires that membership votes be held to approve dues hikes.

What is a dues check-off? The point where the concept of union security and the collection of union dues meet is the dues check-off. This refers to an arrangement by which employers withhold money from their workers' pay and then forward it to their workers' union to cover the workers' dues. This insures the financial security of unions in that it creates a certainty that the unions will in fact receive the dues they are owed.

Why would a union want to use dues check-off? The advantage of the procedure to unions is that it insures that they will in fact receive the dues owed them by the workers they represent.

Are there any requirements that must be met to check off dues? Federal labor law, which specifically permits the check-off of union dues, lays down some guidelines which must be followed in order for the check-off to be carried out in a lawful manner. First, before checking off dues on behalf of a worker, a company has to have the worker's written authorization to do so. It is an unfair labor practice for a company to check off union dues from workers' salaries without workers' authorizations. Second, the written authorization cannot be irrevocable for a period of more than a year, or for a period beyond the termination date of the applicable collective bargaining agreement, whichever occurs sooner.

How do unions and employers address the requirement that the authorization not be irrevocable for a period of more than a year? To somewhat circumvent this second requirement, unions and companies have used written authorizations which contain automatic renewal clauses.

What effect does an automatic renewal clause have on a dues check-off authorization? What a clause like this does is make the workers' check-off authorizations irrevocable for a period of one year. After that first year is up, workers have fifteen days in which to revoke their check-off authorizations. If they don't revoke their authorizations within that time, then the authorizations are irrevocable for another year.

Can an employer require its workers to agree to dues check-off? No. A worker has the right to refuse to sign a check-off authorization if he wishes to discharge his dues payment obligations in some other manner.

Can an employer stop honoring dues-check-off provisions of a collective bargaining agreement once the agreement expires? The NLRB has said that an employer's obligation to continue a dues-check-off arrangement expires with the contract that created the obligation. Therefore, an employer may unilaterally dishonor the dues-check-off provision of an expired agreement.