Union Members Not Getting Bargain

Each year, billions of dollars in mandatory union dues are taken from American workers and used to pay for non-collective bargaining activities - many of them political - that many of those same workers disapprove of. Soon Congress will vote on legislation aimed at rectifying this situation.

For example, the AFL-CIO has launched a $35 million campaign to unseat congressional Republicans this November, financed largely by compulsory union dues. Since union members typically divide their vote roughly 60-40 between Democrats and Republicans, this means as many as 40 percent of AFL-CIO members may be forced to contribute to a campaign with which they disagree.

In a 1988 decision, Communications Workers of America vs. Beck, the Supreme Court declared that union members are entitled to a refund of the portion of their dues used for purposes other than collective bargaining, contract administration and grievance adjustment. Yet, eight years later, labor leaders and the Clinton administration are working in tandem to assure that the Beck decision goes unenforced.

The National Labor Relations Board, the body charged with enforcing Beck rights, has failed to break this conspiracy of silence. Earlier this year, the NLRB in its first effort to implement Beck - decided a brief statement of Beck rights in a union’s annual publication was sufficient to satisfy court requirements.

However, an April 1996 Luntz Associates survey of 1,000 union members showed that 78 percent had no idea they had a right to obtain a refund for any dues spent on political activities. The survey also revealed that once union members discovered what their Beck rights were, 56 percent would be likely to request refunds.

To help rectify this situation, the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation will kick off a nationwide Labor Day campaign to inform union members of their rights. By calling (888) 789-4255, workers can find out what they can do to prevent their dues from being used for partisan politics.

As for union members who know their rights, trying to exercise them can be perilous. Workers can be required to resign from their unions in order to exercise their Beck rights. Workers who want to stop contributing to union political efforts must often give up their voting rights in key workplace issues, such as whether to strike.

Rep. Harris Fawell, R-Ill., has introduced the “Worker Right to Know Act,” which would require unions to get a signed agreement from workers before using dues for activities unrelated to collective bargaining. The bill also would give workers who chose not to give some of their dues to political activities the right to participate in their unions.

In addition, the act would help union members obtain the full refunds they are due from their unions. Currently, unions determine how much should be refunded under Beck by manipulating the definition of “non-collective bargaining activities.”

Union attorneys typically claim that only 20 percent of dues go to non-collective bargaining related expenses. But in the 1986 Lehnert case, the National Education Association and state and local affiliates were only able to prove that 10 percent of their general treasury funds had been used for collective bargaining activities. Marshall J. Breger, former solicitor of the Department of Labor, has calculated that as much as 80 percent of union dues goes to non-collective bargaining activities.

Under the Worker Right to Know Act, an independent auditor would be called in to resolve this issue. Audits are necessary for another reason: The information provided in annual union disclosure forms for the U.S. Department of Labor is often vague and incomplete.

The DOL neither sets guidelines for the information it requests nor performs comprehensive audits of unions. Unions know that incomplete or inaccurate data will not be scrutinized. On its disclosure forms, for instance, the United Auto Workers claims that rates for union dues and initiation fees for the years 1990-95 are “not available.”

Depending on the calculations one uses, unions annually could be spending anywhere from less than $3 billion to more than $17 billion on non-collective bargaining activities. The enormity of the financial stakes argues for a better system, to account for and inform union members about the use of mandatory dues payments.

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The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Kenneth R. Weinstein and Thomas M. Wielgus Special to Knight-Ridder/Tribune