[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3580 Introduced in House (IH)]







104th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3580

   To ensure that employees who work under a security agreement that 
requires such employees to pay union dues as a condition of employment 
    have a right to object to the use of their dues for political, 
              legislative, social, or charitable purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 5, 1996

   Mr. Fawell (for himself, Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Armey, Mr. DeLay, Mr. 
 Boehner, Mr. Ballenger, Mr. Barrett of Nebraska, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. 
Hoekstra, Mr. Hutchinson, Mr. Knollenberg, Mr. Graham, Mr. Funderburk, 
Mr. Goss, and Mrs. Seastrand), introduced the following bill; which was 
  referred to the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To ensure that employees who work under a security agreement that 
requires such employees to pay union dues as a condition of employment 
    have a right to object to the use of their dues for political, 
              legislative, social, or charitable purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Worker Right to Know Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The United States Supreme Court announced in the 
        landmark decision, Communications Workers of America v. Beck 
        (487 U.S. 735), that employees who work under a union security 
        agreement, and are required to pay union dues as a condition of 
        employment, may not be forced to contribute through such dues 
        to union-supported political, legislative, social, or 
        charitable causes with which they disagree, and may only be 
        required to pay dues related to collective bargaining, contract 
        administration, and grievance adjustment necessary to 
        performing the duties of exclusive representation.
            (2) Little action has been taken by the National Labor 
        Relations Board to facilitate the ability of employees to 
        exercise their right to object to the use of their union dues 
        for political, legislative, social, or charitable purposes, or 
        other activities not necessary to performing the duties of the 
        exclusive representative of employees in dealing with the 
        employer on labor-management issues, and the Board only 
        recently issued its first ruling implementing the Beck decision 
        nearly 8 years after the Supreme Court issued the opinion.
            (3) The evolution of the right enunciated in the Beck 
        decision has diminished its meaningfulness because employees 
        are forced to forego critical workplace rights bearing on their 
        economic well-being in order to object to the use of their dues 
        for purposes unrelated to collective bargaining, to rely on the 
        very organization they are challenging to make the 
        determination regarding the amount of dues necessary to the 
        union's representational function, and do not have access to 
        clear and concise financial records that provide an accurate 
        accounting of how union dues are spent.

SEC. 3. PURPOSE.

    The purpose of this Act is to ensure that workers who are required 
to pay union dues as a condition of employment have adequate 
information about how the money they pay in dues to a union is spent 
and to remove obstacles to the ability of working people to exercise 
their right to object to the use of their dues for political, 
legislative, social, or charitable causes with which they disagree, or 
for other activities not necessary to performing the duties of the 
exclusive representative of employees in dealing with the employer on 
labor-management issues.

SEC. 4. WORKER CHOICE.

    (a) Rights of Employees.--Section 7 of the National Labor Relations 
Act is amended by striking ``membership'' and all that follows and 
inserting the following: ``the payment to a labor organization of dues 
or fees related to collective bargaining, contract administration, or 
grievance adjustment necessary to performing the duties of exclusive 
representation as a condition of employment as authorized in section 
8(a)(3).''.
    (b) Unfair Labor Practices.--Section 8(a)(3) of such Act is amended 
by striking ``membership therein'' and inserting ``the payment to such 
labor organization of dues or fees related to collective bargaining, 
contract administration, or grievance adjustment necessary to 
performing the duties of exclusive representation''.

SEC. 5. WORKER CONSENT.

    (a) Written Agreement.--Section 8 of the National Labor Relations 
Act is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(h) An employee subject to an agreement between an employer and a 
labor organization requiring the payment of dues or fees to such 
organization as authorized in section 8(a)(3) may not be required to 
pay to such organization, nor may such organization accept payment of, 
any dues or fees not related to collective bargaining, contract 
administration, or grievance adjustment necessary to performing the 
duties of exclusive representation unless the employee has agreed to 
pay such dues or fees in a signed written agreement that must be 
renewed between the first day of September and the first day of October 
of each year. Such signed written agreement shall include a ratio, 
certified by an independent auditor, of the dues or fees related to 
collective bargaining, contract administration, or grievance adjustment 
necessary to performing the duties of exclusive representation and the 
dues or fees related to other purposes.''.
    (b) Written Assignment.--Section 302(c)(4) of the Labor Management 
Relations Act, 1947 is amended by inserting before the semicolon the 
following: ``: Provided further, That no amount may be deducted for 
dues unrelated to collective bargaining, contract administration, or 
grievance adjustment necessary to performing the duties of exclusive 
representation unless a written assignment authorizes such a 
deduction''.

SEC. 6. WORKER NOTICE.

    Section 8 of the National Labor Relations Act is amended by adding 
at the end the following:
    ``(i) An employer shall be required to post a notice, of such size 
and in such form as the Board shall prescribe, in conspicuous places in 
and about its plants and offices, including all places where notices to 
employees are customarily posted, informing employees of their rights 
under section 7 of this Act and clarifying to employees that an 
agreement requiring the payment of dues or fees to a labor organization 
as a condition of employment as authorized in subsection (a)(3) may 
only require that employees pay to such organization any dues or fees 
related to collective bargaining, contract administration, or grievance 
adjustment necessary to performing the duties of exclusive 
representation. A copy of such notice shall be provided to each 
employee not later than 10 days after the first day of employment.''.

SEC. 7. WORKER ECONOMIC RIGHTS.

    Section 8(b)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act is amended by 
inserting after ``therein;'' the following: ``except that, an employee 
subject to an agreement between an employer and a labor organization 
requiring as a condition of employment the payment of dues or fees to 
such organization as authorized in subsection (a)(3), who pays such 
dues or fees, shall have the same right to participate in the affairs 
of the organization related to collective bargaining, contract 
administration, or grievance adjustment as any member of the 
organization;''.

SEC. 8. DISCLOSURE TO WORKERS.

    (a) Expenses Reporting.--Section 201(b) of the Labor-Management 
Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 is amended by adding at the end 
the following new sentence: ``Every labor organization shall be 
required to attribute and report expenses by function classification in 
such detail as necessary to allow its members to determine whether such 
expenses were related to collective bargaining, contract 
administration, or grievance adjustment necessary to performing the 
duties of exclusive representation or were related to other 
purposes.''.
    (b) Disclosure.--Section 201(c) of the Labor-Management Reporting 
and Disclosure Act of 1959 is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``and employees required to pay any dues 
        or fees to such organization'' after ``members''; and
            (2) inserting ``or employee required to pay any dues or 
        fees to such organization'' after ``member'' each place it 
        appears.
    (c) Regulations.--The Secretary of Labor shall prescribe such 
regulations as are necessary to carry out the amendments made by this 
section not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this 
Act.

SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This Act shall take effect on the date of enactment, except that 
the requirements contained in the amendments made by sections 5 and 6 
shall take effect 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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