868
Opinion of the Court
the difficulties entailed in holding a federal-court hearing without a preparatory arbitration, and is answered by conscientious management of the pretrial process to guard against abuse, not by a judicially imposed exhaustion requirement. Genuine as the Union's interest in avoiding multiple proceedings may be, that interest does not overwhelm objectors' resistance to arbitration to which they did not consent, and their election to proceed immediately to court for adjudication of their federal rights. Pp. 874-880.
108 F. 3d 1415, affirmed.
Ginsburg, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, and Thomas, JJ., joined. Breyer, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Stevens, J., joined, post, p. 880.
Jerry D. Anker argued the cause and filed briefs for petitioner.
Raymond J. LaJeunesse, Jr., argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief was Philip F. Hudock.*
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. An "agency-shop" arrangement permits a union, obliged to act on behalf of all employees in the bargaining unit, to charge nonunion workers their fair share of the costs of the representation. The purposes for which a union may spend the "agency fee" paid by nonmembers, however, are circumscribed by the First Amendment (when public employers are involved) and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) or Railway Labor Act (RLA) (when private employers subject to their provisions are involved). In Teachers v. Hudson, 475 U. S. 292 (1986), we held that the First Amendment requires public-employee unions to accord workers who object
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations by Jonathan P. Hiatt, James B. Coppess, and Laurence Gold; and for the National Education Association by Robert H. Chanin and Jeremiah A. Collins.
Frank T. Mamat, J. Walker Henry, and George M. Mesrey filed a brief for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy as amicus curiae urging affirmance.
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