34
Syllabus
Circuit held that SAG had not breached the duty of fair representation merely by negotiating a union security clause that tracked the NLRA language. The Ninth Circuit also held that petitioner's challenge to the grace period provision was at base a claim that the clause violated the NLRA and that this claim fell within the primary jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Held:
1. A union does not breach the duty of fair representation merely by negotiating a union security clause that uses § 8(a)(3)'s language without explaining, in the agreement, this Court's interpretation of that language in General Motors and Beck. Pp. 42-48.
(a) In resolving this narrow question, the Court is not deciding whether SAG illegally enforced the union security clause to require petitioner to become a union member or to pay dues for noncollective bargaining activities. Similarly, the Court is not deciding whether SAG breached its fair representation duty by failing to adequately notify petitioner of her Beck and General Motors rights. Pp. 42-44.
(b) SAG did not breach its duty of fair representation by negotiating a union security clause that tracked the statutory language. A breach of that duty occurs when a union's conduct toward a member of the bargaining unit is arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith. E. g., Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U. S. 171, 190. Petitioner does not argue that SAG's conduct was discriminatory, and, on this record, SAG's conduct cannot be said to have been either arbitrary or in bad faith. The mere negotiation of a contract that uses terms of art cannot be fairly characterized as so far outside a wide range of reasonableness that it is wholly irrational or arbitrary. See, e. g., Air Line Pilots v. O'Neill, 499 U. S. 65, 78. After this Court in General Motors and Beck stated that the statutory language incorporates an employee's rights not to "join" the union (except by paying fees and dues) and to pay for only representational activities, SAG cannot be faulted for using this very language to convey these very concepts. Moreover, petitioner's assertion that SAG acted in bad faith in that it had no reason to use the statutory language except to mislead employees about their Beck and General Motors rights is unpersuasive. This argument's first component—in effect, that even if SAG always informs workers of their rights and even if it enforces the union security clause in conformity with federal law, use of the statutory language in the agreement is intended to mislead employees—is unconvincing because it is so broad. The second part of petitioner's bad faith argument—that there was no other reason for SAG's choice of the statutory language—fails because a union might choose that language precisely because it is a shorthand description of workers' legal rights that
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