United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 1036 v. National Labor Relations Board

The National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or “the Act”), as amended, es *1103 tablishes an elaborate and complicated structure that governs labor relations in almost all of the industries within the nation’s private sector. 1 Collective bargaining is the central concern of that structure, and labor unions are essential to the collective bargaining process. The Act contains a union security provision, § 8(a)(3), that helps secure the role of unions in the collective bargaining process by permitting unions and employers to enter into agreements requiring employees to become union members. 2 It is the interpretation of that provision that is at issue in this case.

The union intervenors, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Locals 7 and 951, serve as the exclusive bargaining representatives for the employees of several retail food companies. Collective bargaining agreements (“CBAs”) negotiated between the employers and the unions govern the terms and conditions of the employees’ employment. The National Labor Relations Act, as amended, requires that an exclusive bargaining representative must represent all employees in a bargaining unit — union members and non-members alike — when…