Cite as: 525 U. S. 33 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
Petitioner appealed, and the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part. 124 F. 3d 1034 (1997). The Court of Appeals reversed the grant of summary judgment on petitioner's claim that SAG's enforcement of the union security clause breached the duty of fair representation, finding that there were genuine issues of material fact remaining to be resolved on this issue. For example, the record contains conflicting evidence on whether the union told petitioner that she had to "join" the union, or whether it told her that she had to "pay" the union. Id., at 1041. The Court of Appeals also reversed the grant of summary judgment on petitioner's claim that the union had breached the duty of fair representation by failing to notify her of her right, under Beck, to pay only the lesser "core" fees associated with the union's collective bargaining functions. The District Court had not addressed this claim, so the Court of Appeals remanded this issue for consideration. Id., at 1042-1043.
On the two issues before this Court, however, the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the District Court. First, the court held that SAG had not breached the duty of fair representation merely by negotiating a union security clause that tracked the language of the NLRA. The court noted that the statutory language had been given a specialized meaning, but rejected petitioner's argument that the failure to fully explain this meaning in the collective bargaining agreement was an arbitrary or bad faith breach of the duty of fair representation. The court noted that two other Courts of Appeals had recently rejected similar claims. Id., at 1038-1039 (citing International Union Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers v. NLRB, 41 F. 3d 1532 (CADC 1994); Nielsen v. International Assn. of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, 94 F. 3d 1107 (CA7 1996), cert. denied, 520 U. S. 1165 (1997)). The Ninth Circuit's resolution of this issue is in tension with the decisions of two other Courts of Appeals. See, e. g., Buzenius v.
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