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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   26880 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 4, 2023

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One thing, or rather a couple closely related things, I don't understand. If Carter left the union, how would she still fall under their CBA, and why would they be expected to represent her? Seems like she wanted to have her cake and eat it too. These are exactly the things she'd be voluntarily giving up by choosing not to be part of the union.

Honestly I'm surprised leaving the union is even something you *can *do at SWA - most workplaces I'm familiar with are either unionized or they're not, and in the former case you either belong to the union or you don't work there. Or maybe that statement was misleading? What exactly is meant by "had left the union several years prior" here?

Honestly I'm surprised leaving the union is even something you can do at SWA—most workplaces I'm familiar with are either unionized or they're not, and in the former case you either belong to the union or you don't work there.

Presumably, Southwest is not a "union shop".

Quotes from the complaint:

Although she became a member of Local 556 upon employment with Southwest, Carter resigned from membership in Local 556 on or about September 29, 2013, and exercised her RLA rights under Ellis v. Bhd. of Ry., Airline and S.S. Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Emps., 466 U.S. 435 (1984), to object to paying the union’s compelled fees for its political, ideological, and other nonbargaining spending. Since that date, Carter has remained a nonmember objector.

 

Under the [Railway Labor Act], a union acting as the exclusive representative of a craft/class of employees owes a fiduciary duty of fair representation to all of those employees that it represents, members and nonmembers alike.… Steele v. Louisville & N. R. Co., 323 U.S. 192 (1944)…

Quote from the second cited Supreme Court opinion:

So long as a labor union assumes to act as the statutory representative of a craft, it cannot rightly refuse to perform the duty, which is inseparable from the power of representation conferred upon it, to represent the entire membership of the craft. While the statute does not deny to such a bargaining labor organization the right to determine eligibility to its membership, it does require the union, in collective bargaining and in making contracts with the carrier, to represent non-union or minority union members of the craft without hostile discrimination, fairly, impartially, and in good faith.

Okay, seems weird to me, and I'm reasonably sure that's not how it would work here, but clearly there's settled law on this in the US. TIL.

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