NLRB Mandates Dues Check-Offs Even After Union Contract Expires

The National Labor Relations Board may be inoperative at present. Yet one of its rulings last month, unless undone, will curtail a longstanding right of employers and individual workers. On December 12, in WKYC-TV Inc., the NLRB ruled 3-1 that an employer must continue to collect dues from union members via automatic "checkoff" even after the collective bargaining agreement expires. The ruling effectively overturns the board's Bethlehem Steel decision of 1962, which held dues check-offs to be inoperative after contract expiration. It's another case of President Obama's appointees to the normally five-member body favoring forced unionism. The ruling isn't affected by last Friday's federal appeals court ruling voiding Obama's recess appointments to the board in January 2012. But even with a welcome revisit, the outcome likely would be the same.

Read more: http://nlpc.org/stories/2013/01/30/nlrb-mandates-dues-check-offs-even-after-union-contract-expires