Modern News

National Right to Work fills us in on the good news that the 9th Circuit Court handed unions a blow this month making it harder on the unions for hiding expenses that end up charged to forced-dues-payers.

Upholding the National Labor Relations Board’s January 2006 decision against Studio Transportation Drivers Local 399 of the Teamsters, the appeals court found that the union, which used the arbitration awards for nonrepresentational purposes such as political and charitable contributions, should exclude the money from its calculation of agency fees rather than use it to reduce its reported nonrepresentational expenses.

By spending the arbitration award money on nonrepresentational rather than representational expenditures, the union in effect increased the agency fees owed by the objecting nonmember for representational expenses, Judge Harry Pregerson wrote for the appeals court.

NRTW informs us that this is an important ruling because is stops unions from shifting expenses that end up overcharging nonmembers who are forced to pay dues as a condition of employment.

It is now even more clearly illegal for union officials to funnel revenue from sources other than union dues to pay for “non-chargeable” items – like politics, lobbying and members-only activities. Using this scheme, union officials try to get away with charging a higher percentage of the remaining activities to forced-dues-payers.

So, mark this one as a win for the good guys.