Cite as: 523 U. S. 866 (1998)
Breyer, J., dissenting
more than $50 or so for any individual dissenter, see Tr. of Oral Arg. 10) "can easily consume the union's agency fee receipts." Brief for AFL-CIO as Amicus Curiae 14, n. 5. The Court itself recognizes as "[g]enuine" the Union's "con-cern" about defending "its fee calculation simultaneously in judicial and arbitral fora." Ante, at 878, 879.
Second, consider the matter from the perspective of the dissenting employee. The Court's decision, rejecting the Union's rule, may help to protect the ideological interests of a few of those employees, but only a few, and then in a way that does not offset the corresponding harm caused the Union. That is because "arbitration first" does not mean serious delay, for the arbitration must begin promptly and proceed expeditiously. See Hudson, supra, at 307. Moreover, nonbinding arbitration may resolve the dispute to the satisfaction of some dissenting employees, perhaps those whose objections rest less upon ideology and more upon a desire to minimize the fee they must pay. See Gilpin v. AFSCME, 875 F. 2d 1310, 1313 (CA7 1989) (noting that many objectors are "free riders" seeking representation at the lowest cost possible); Weaver v. University of Cincinnati, 970 F. 2d 1523, 1530 (CA6 1992) (same); Kidwell v. Transportation Comm. Int'l Union, 946 F. 2d 283, 304-306 (CA4 1991) (same).
Nor will trying arbitration first prejudice the cause of the remaining unsatisfied objectors. The nonbinding arbitration process may deprive objectors of their money for a brief additional time, but the disputed fees must remain unspent in escrow during the arbitration proceedings. Hudson, supra, at 305, 310. Nonbinding arbitration also leaves the objectors free to press their claims in a later court action— if the arbitration's result leaves them dissatisfied. And, as the Union conceded at oral argument, the judge in that later action, though informed by the arbitrator's decision, would not accord it any special legal weight. Tr. of Oral Arg. 16, 20-21; see also Hudson, supra, at 308, n. 21 ("arbitrator's decision would not receive preclusive effect in any subse-
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