City of Hayward v. United Public Employees Local 390, Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO

The City of Hayward and its city manager appeal from a judgment declaring that an “agency shop” agreement between the city and respondent United Public Employees, Local 390, is lawful.

Respondent (hereinafter “the Union”) is a labor organization affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO; certain. employees of the city are members of the Union. On July 11, 1972, the Union and the city entered into a “Memorandum of Understanding,” whereby the city recognized the Union as representing a majority of the employees in the city’s maintenance and operations unit.

The agreement covered wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment, about which there is no controversy. A dispute arose, however, over the validity of section 1.02 of the agreement, which provides that, although employees are not to be required to join the Union, all employees in the maintenance and operations unit, including nonmembers of the Union, “shall, as a condition of continued employment, pay to the union an amount of money equal to that paid by other employees in the appropriate unit who are members of the union, which shall be limited to an amount of money equal to the…