Why Workers Deserve the Employee Rights Act, Part 3: Paycheck Protection

In the first installment of “Why Workers Deserve the Employee Rights Act,” the topic was secret-ballot elections and how a private vote in a union representation election protects workers from coercive union tactics.

Part 2 focus was on union recertification elections, which ensure all workers have a say concerning union representation and solves the problem of inherited unions.

Here in Part 3, paycheck protection is discussed.

Employees gain the right to not subsidize non-representational union activity under the the Employee Rights Act. The bill amends the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 to limit compulsory collection of union dues to representational activity, like collective bargaining and contract administration. Under the ERA, an employee will be given the choice to opt-in to financially assist union political activity, rather than going through the arduous process of opting-out of financially supporting union political activities.

As the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation notes, even the “Supreme Court suggested in its Foundation-won Knox v. SEIU ruling that it was ready to reassess whether union bosses’ forced dues powers, which it called “something of an anomaly,” violate workers’ First Amendment rights. Responding to that suggestion, the workers’ lawsuit seeks to eliminate forced unionism in America.”

Last, as with all the provisions of the ERA, an EmployeeRightsAct.com poll shows both non-union and union households support workers having the right to choose whether or not to support union political activity. Non-union households were 85 percent and union households were 83 percent supportive of paycheck protection.