870
Opinion of the Court
case on grounds not pertinent here.) The pilots unsuccessfully moved for a preliminary injunction against implementation of the agency-shop arrangement, and ALPA began collecting agency fees on January 1, 1992.
In 1992, ALPA charged its members monthly dues of 2.35 percent of each pilot's earnings. The Union ultimately determined, in its final, audited "Statement of Germane and Nongermane Expenses" (SGNE) for 1992, that 19 percent of ALPA's expenses for that year were not germane to collective bargaining. Accordingly, the Union adjusted fees charged nonmembers to equal 81 percent of the amount members paid.
On October 8, 1992, some months after the Union had begun to collect agency fees, the pilots moved to amend their complaint to add a count challenging the manner in which ALPA calculated the fee. They alleged, inter alia, that ALPA had overstated the percentage of its expenditures genuinely attributable to "germane" activities. The District Court granted the motion to amend on August 2, 1993. The pilots' original facial challenges to the agency-shop clause were later resolved in the Union's favor on summary judgment (a matter the pilots did not contest on appeal). Thus, the challenge to the 1992 agency-fee calculation is the only claim before us.
Under ALPA's "Policies and Procedures Applicable to Agency Fees," pilots who object to the fee calculation may request arbitration under procedures the American Arbitration Association (AAA) devised to resolve such disputes. Id., at 69-70. One hundred seventy-four Delta pilots filed timely objections with the Union after receiving the 1992 SGNE. ALPA treated those objections as requests for arbitration and referred them to the AAA. On October 15, 1993, the AAA appointed an arbitrator to resolve the objections in a single, consolidated proceeding.
The objectors included 91 of the 153 pilots who are respondents here. (The other 62 respondents intervened in
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