48
Opinion of the Court
suasive. Contrary to petitioner's claim, we conclude that it may be perfectly reasonable for a union to use terms of art in a contract.
Petitioner proposed one stopping point at oral argument: the union security clause. Petitioner suggested that a union is only required to explain the union security clause in intricate detail because that is the only part of the contract where the union's and the workers' interests diverge. Tr. of Oral Arg. 16. The union security clause, however, is not the only part of the contract where the union's interests diverge from the interests of the employees. To take a simple example, the union's duty of fair representation is implied from its status as the exclusive bargaining representative of the bargaining unit workers. Under petitioner's logic, the union would have to incorporate into the collective bargaining agreement a section detailing the union's obligations under this duty. Presumably, this section would have to include discussions of judicial and NLRB interpretations of each prong of the duty of fair representation and how those prongs limit union conduct toward employees. Moreover, petitioner's rights under Beck and General Motors are not the only limits on a union's power under a union security clause. For example, the NLRA provides that workers with religious objections to supporting unions cannot be forced to pay any fees to a union, 29 U. S. C. § 169, and it also provides that the workers cannot be forced to pay fees that are discriminatory or excessive, § 158(b)(5). In other words, petitioner's proposed stopping point is no stopping point at all. A union's decision to avoid this slippery slope is not a fortiori a decision made in bad faith.
In sum, on this record, the union's conduct in negotiating a union security clause that tracked the statutory language cannot be said to have been either arbitrary or in bad faith. The Court of Appeals correctly rejected petitioner's argument that, by negotiating this clause, the union breached its duty of fair representation.
Page: Index Previous 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007