Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Association

Background

The State of Michigan's Public Employment Relations Act provides that a duly selected union shall serve as the exclusive representative of public employees in a particular bargaining unit. The act, which applied to faculty members in all educational institutions in Michigan, permitted unions and state employers to enter into “agency shop” arrangements in which the unions acted as agent for all employees regardless of their union membership status. Employees in agency shops are not required to join unions but are compelled to pay service fees that almost equal union dues, because nonmembers benefit from union collective bargaining efforts as much as members. The primary purpose of such policies, of course, is to prevent nonmembers from freeloading on union efforts without sharing the attendant costs. However, agency shop arrangements in public sector unions raise First Amendment concerns, because they require nonmembers to contribute money to unions as a condition of government employment.

In Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, a 1977 case from K-12 education, the Supreme Court first upheld the constitutionality of the agency shop provision in Michigan's Public Employment Relations Act that related to Lehnert, while emphasizing that unions in the public sector may not use the fees of dissenting nonmembers for political purposes. The justices also highlighted important guidelines for lower courts to consider in the adjudication of future agency shop disputes. First, the Court explained that compelling employees to pay a service fee prompts First Amendment [Page 290]concerns, because unions support a wide range of social, political, and ideological viewpoints, any one of which might bring disapproval from individual employees. Under the First Amendment, employees have the right to speak and associate or not to speak and associate regarding union political activities.

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