Religious Liberty and Compulsory Unionism: A Worker's Guide to Using Union Dues for Charity

Many employees in unionized workplaces do not know that if they harbor religious objections to joining, financing, or otherwise associating with labor unions, they have legal recourse if their union or employer or both violate those rights. This report explains the statutes and developing case law that protect religious employees' freedom of conscience in the workplace by allowing them to refrain from union membership and divert their compulsory dues to a charity of their choice.

Contents

• Executive Summary
• Introduction: Unions and Religious Liberty
• Part I: Title VII-First Line of Defense for Religious Objectors to Forced Union Membership, Dues, or Agency Fees
  • Title VII Protections and Religion
  • How the Courts Have Handled Employees' Religious Objections to Union Membership under Title VII
    • First Amendment Challenges to Forced Union Membership
    • Title VII Challenges: Compulsory Unionism vs. Employees' Religious Beliefs
      • Yott v. North American Rockwell Corp.
      • Cooper v. General Dynamics Convair Aerospace Div.
      • Trans World Airlines v. Hardison
      • McDaniel v. Essex International, Inc.
      • Burns v. Southern Pacific Transportation Co.
  • Other Union-Related, Religion-Based Objections
  • How Workers Can Put Title VII Protections into Action
    • Establishing a Title VII Religious Discrimination Claim
    • The Basic Procedure for Making Religious Discrimination Charges under Title VII
• Part II: Religious Objectors under the National Labor Relations Act
  • Religious Objectors in Health-Care Industry Gain Protection under NLRA
  • Congress Attempts to Expand NLRA Protections to All Religious Objectors
• Part III: The Beck Case Offers Partial Relief to Religious Objectors
• Conclusion
• Appendix I: Organizations to Contact for Help
• Appendix II: Sample Employee Beck Letter
• Endnotes
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors