No, not “union busted” …union not required. (Although I’d hope that unions are doing a lot more for their workers than just pay and condition negotiations.)
This may surprise you but a straightforward worker’s council is perfectly able to negotiate pay and conditions without need of an official union. I know, I’ve been on one. No membership, no fees and people still free to be a union member or not as they so wish. For certain groups they negotiated contracts via a union, for others they left it up to the worker’s council, it wasn’t complicated.
Perhaps the law that mandates that a company offer the same contract to union members as it does to non-union members should be repealed. Then the choice to join or not join would actually be more of a choice. Join the union? pay dues but maybe get a better wage. Don’t join the union? No dues, but maybe not as favorable a wage as the union workers.
Does the concept of a “free rider” specifically describe an illegal action? I understood the term to refer to anyone who gets benefits without paying for them, regardless of wether it was legal or not, but perhaps I’m mistaken?
Agency fees are the percentage of union dues that the union spends on contract negotiations and benefits, as opposed to costs like political donations.
So if the union dues are $100, the union produces an accounting: of that $100, we spend 87 on getting you benefits and 13 on Sanders for President. The union can charge non-members the 87.
I don’t know how universal that is. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t charged anything when I declined joining a union in Texas. Although they weren’t actively negotiating anything during my brief tenure.
