Robin Gansley Mitchell Arthur L. Benveniste Walter J. Borden Conrad J. Chavez v. Los Angeles Unified School District, and United Teachers-Los Angeles

The plaintiffs-appellees in this case are employees of the defendant Los Angeles Unified School District. They are represented by the defendant and appellant union, United Teachers — Los Angeles. That union represents approximately 35,000 teachers in the Los Angeles School District under an agency shop agreement duly certified pursuant to the California Educational Employment Relations Act, Cal.Gov’t Code §§ 3540-3549.3 (West 1980 & Supp. 1992). The agreement contains an agency fee provision which authorizes a payroll deduction on behalf of the union for all employees, regardless of union membership or nonmembership, in an amount not to exceed normal union membership dues and assessments. It is that agency fee provision which is at issue in this appeal.

The named plaintiffs in this case are nonunion members of the bargaining unit. They filed this action against the school district and the union challenging various aspects of the operation of the agency fee provision. The district court’s opinions in the case are reported at 739 F.Supp. 511 (C.D.Cal.1990) (“Mitchell I”) and 744 F.Supp. 938 (C.D.Cal.1990) (“Mitchell II”, the subject of this appeal). On appeal, the facts are not…