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Union Security Agreements

Forms of union security:

	Closed shop; Employer hires only union members. Made illegal by Taft-Hartley Act (Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947).
	Open shop; Some employees may belong to a union. No collective bargaining agreement.
	Merit shop; Same as open shop. Non-union employers claim all employment decisions are based on worker “merit” rather than on other factors such as seniority.
	Union shop; Strongest form of union security. There is a “grace period” for membership once a worker is hired. In the construction industry, workers have seven days to either join the union or tender union dues related to cost of collective bargaining and initiation fees.
	Agency shop; employees are not required to join the union but must pay a reasonable representation fee that covers the cost of bargaining and contract administration. See non-member dues calculations below.
	Maintenance of membership; Workers are not required to join the union but once becoming a member, they must remain so for the life of the contract. There may be an escape period allowing a member to resign. These agreements may be executed in combination with other forms of union security. For example, in a top-down organizing situation, new hires may be covered by the union shop provision while the existing workforce may be covered by a maintenance of membership clause.

Prehire Agreements:

Section 8(f) of the National Labor Relations Act allows construction employers to sign a union-security agreement prior to any workers being hired for a project. The agreement will apply to workers when they are hired. The union-security provisions may become effective with respect to new employees after 7 full days. If the agreement is made while employees are on the job, it must allow existing employees the same 7-day grace period to comply. The law requires that any union involved must be free from employer assistance or control under Section 8(a)(2) of the Act

Collective-bargaining contracts in the building and construction industry can include, as
stated in Section 8(f), the following additional provisions

1. A requirement that the employer notify the union concerning job openings..
2. A provision that gives the union an opportunity to refer qualified applicants for such jobs.
3. Job qualification standards based on training or experience.
4. A provision for priority in hiring based on length of service with the employer, in
the industry, or in the particular geographic area.

These four hiring provisions may lawfully be included in collective-bargaining contracts
which cover employees in other industries as well.

The contract language specifies that employers must accept referrals of union workers and pay union wages and benefits. This remains in effect for the length of the contract. The pre-hire provision does not prevent a certification election by another union or a decertification election from being held during its term.In 1987, the NLRB ruled in the Deklewa case that when a prehire agreement expires, the contractor returns to a non-union status unless a majority of continuing workers vote to be represented by the union. Therefore, all Section 8(f) agreements should be converted to a Section 9(a) relationship, where the union asserts its majority status, before the contract expiration date.

Section 9(a) provides that the employee representatives that have been ‘‘designated or selected for the purposes of collective bargaining by the majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for such purposes, shall be the exclusive representatives of all the employees in such unit for the purposes of collective bargaining.’’ This involves voluntary recognition of the union by the employer or by using NLRB procedures such as election and certification. See John Deklewa & Sons 282 NLRB 1375 (1987).

Click here for the NLRB procedural rules on establishing exclusive recognition. (Word document)

Click here for recent case citations on recognition (Courtesy IBEW). (Word document)