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Pros Of Collective Bargaining

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On Tuesday, March 29, a tie vote in the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a victory for unions and collective bargaining. The Supreme Court reached a 4-4 vote in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a major labor case on union funding. This tie vote upholds the legality of fair share fees and allows unions to maintain the system they use to collect funds that support collective bargaining and obtaining benefits for workers.
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is the negotiation between union leaders and the company’s management that sets out the terms of employment such as working conditions, base pay, overtime, work hours, and benefits. By law, collective bargaining benefits all workers whether they are in the union or not and …show more content…

In a union shop, an employee must join a union in order to remain employed. If the employee does not join the union within a specified period of time outlined in the collective bargaining agreement, the union has the right to petition the employer for termination of that employee. This clause, generally called a union shop clause, is one of several union security clauses. Another union security clause that can be present in collective bargaining agreements is the agency shop clause. The agency shop clause does not require that employees become members of the union or follow union rules, but it does require that non-member employees pay a fee to the union for collective bargaining purposes within a specific timeframe. If the employee does not abide by this clause, the union can petition the employer for termination of that employee. In states with these union security clauses, such as New York and California, non-members who object to their fees being used for political activities may be entitled to get some of their money back. Some states also require the union to get workers’ permission before collecting fees for activities unrelated to union …show more content…

California Teachers Association, a group of public school employees who are unaffiliated with unions sued the California Teachers Organization, other similar organizations, and California school districts on the grounds that the agency shop arrangement and opt-out requirements of the public school unions violate the First Amendment. In California, unions can establish agency shop clauses in which the school district can require employees to either join the union or pay dues in the form of a “fair share service fee”. Because the First Amendment prevents unions from requiring non-members to support activities that are not related to union representation, unions must notify all non-members of the breakdown of the chargeable and non-chargeable portions of the fee. The non-members must then opt out each year to avoid paying the portion of the fee that goes toward activities that they are not required to

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