Membership dues

“ At best all that has been alleged or proved is that the union will expend a part of each respondent's still-unpaid membership dues for so-called political or other purposes not connected with collective bargaining, and that each respondent would object to the use of any part of his dues for matters other than those relating to collective bargaining. ”

“ Given the character of the integrated bar shown on this record, in the light of the limitation of the membership requirement to the compulsory payment of reasonable annual dues, we are unable to find any impingement upon protected rights of association. ”

“ To the funds accumulated from initiation fees, membership dues and the sale of the associations' credit have been added, in constantly increasing amounts in recent years, the savings of the members themselves. Many societies have such an amount of funds intrusted to them in this way that they are not only entirely freed from the necessity of borrowing, but are obliged to seek opportunities for investment outside their own group. ”

“ Another matter was to place the financial situation of the society squarely before the membership and ask that as many as could and felt so inclined take out a contributing or a sustaining membership. We felt quite strongly that raising the dues was not the answer, because there are a lot of people sort of on the fringe who don't work too actively for the society but who do take out regular memberships but who, if we raised the dues even another 50 cents, would probably fail to renew their memberships. ”

“ There will be an oration and addresses by eminent lawyers, and the Council will spare no efforts to make this meeting even more successful than the first. . . .
“The Council is anxious to increase still further the membership of the Association. With a list of one thousand members, which is the least the Association ought to contain, there would be a surplus in the Treasury each year, derived from the annual dues alone, which could be most usefully and effectively expended in promoting the objects of the Association. ”

“ A charter member pays dues, but not always an initiation fee; an honorary member pays neither dues nor initiation, he is really a permanent guest of the club. A life member is one who pays his dues for twenty years or so in a lump sum, and is exempted from dues even if he lives to be a hundred. Few clubs have honorary members and none have more than half a dozen, so that this type of membership may as well be disregarded. ”

“ I think the Board should be denied the use of its Brown-Olds remedy in situations where, as here, it is not unlikely that a substantial number of employees were willing to pay dues for union membership because, as I see it, the amount of dues or other exactions paid is not a tenable way of estimating the value a willing union member would place on his right to choose freely whether or not he would be or remain a union member-as it were, on his right to change his mind. The amount of dues paid does perhaps provide a means of estimating the value of benefits received from the union. ”

“ The beneficiary system of the union has not been highly developed and members of the union quitting the trade drop their membership. There is no sort of provision whereby members may retain their beneficiary rights on the payment of less than full dues. ”

“ Under the second proviso to § 8 (a) (3) , the burdens of membership upon which employment may be conditioned are expressly limited to the payment of initiation fees and monthly dues. It is permissible to condition employment upon membership, but membership, insofar as it has significance to employment rights, may in turn be conditioned only upon payment of fees and dues. 'Membership' as a condition of employment is whittled down to its financial core. This Court has said as much before in Radio Officers' Union v. Labor Board, 347 U.S. 17, 41, 74 S.Ct. ”

“ Article V.—Any lady or gentleman may become a member of this Society by the consent of the majority of the members present, the signing of the Constitution, and the payment of two dollars as membership fee. It shall be the privilege of the Society to elect any person whose presence may be advantageous to the Society, an honorary member who shall not be required to pay membership fees or dues. ”

“ If an employee in a union shop unit refuses to respect any union-imposed obligations other than the duty to pay dues and fees, and membership in the union is therefore denied or terminated, the condition of 'membership' for § 8 (a) (3) purposes is nevertheless satisfied and the employee may not be discharged for nonmembership even though he is not a formal member. ”

“ The funds of the association were invested in United States securities and the earnings and increment of these investments were used for the contemplated insurance benefits. The initial membership fee of one dollar and weekly dues of twenty-five cents were 'automatically deducted' from the wages of each employee who had been employed for the required period. Before February 4, 1933, the bankrupt regularly paid to the association the accumulations of each payroll deduction, less such expenses of the association as were paid by the bankrupt. ”

“ Any person elected to active membership may become a life member at any time upon payment of fifty dollars, and shall thereafter be subject to no fees or assessments. Such sum shall include payment of the admission fee or dues for the current year. ”

“ Active members who have completed thirty years of membership, or who have completed twenty years of membership and have reached seventy years of age, shall become life members upon giving written notice to the Recording Secretary, or by vote of the Council.
7. Bills for annual dues shall be sent to all members on or near January first, and those whose dues are unpaid on April first shall have notice of the fact sent them by the Treasurer. ”

“ It required money, it is true, to keep up one's membership, but there were many members who were not wealthy, as wealth is measured nowadays—there were many, even, who were pressed sometimes to meet their dues and their house accounts, but the accounts were invariably promptly paid. No man, once in, could ever afford, or ever had the desire, to resign from the St. ”

“ Any person of good moral character who is interested in the special work of this Society shall be deemed eligible for membership in the same. No tests other than that of character and devotion to the Society’s objects shall be applied to membership.
Every applicant for membership shall be recommended by two members of the Society before his application shall be considered by the Secretary-General, and the application shall be accompanied by the dues in the amounts laid down in the by-laws. ”

“ It was made the duty of the captain of a ward to find halls for public meetings and to report to the central committee. He was to open the meetings in his ward and see that a chairman was chosen from among those attending. The duty of the secretary was to issue cards of membership to new members, to collect monthly dues of ten cents from each member, and to receipt for the same on the back of the cards ”

“ Without boasting, it may be said that our Association has striven constantly and with some measure of success towards the attainment of these ends, and that some of them, at least, are in a fair way towards accomplishment. The Association, through the voluntary contributions of its members, in the shape of three dollars set aside from every five dollars paid in, as the annual dues of each member, has expended ten thousand dollars on its law library in the court house, and is continuing to add to the library at the rate of about one thousand dollars per year. ”

“ The question of money will, perhaps, cause discussion. Some persons think that regular dues should be paid into the treasury every week, or whenever a branch meets; others think that an initiation fee of twenty-five cents should be paid whenever a new member joins. ”

“ Because the essence of the affiliation relationship is the notion that the parent union will bring to bear its often considerable economic, political, and informational resources when the local is in need of them, that part of a local's affiliation fee which contributes to the pool of resources potentially available to it is assessed for the bargaining unit's protection, even if it is not actually expended on that unit in any particular membership year. ”

“ The return to members who have been able to secure a large number of other members, and to pay their own monthly dues, may be very large in comparison with the amount paid in, but the amount of such return depends so largely, and, indeed, almost wholly, upon conditions which the member is unable to control, that we think it fulfils all the conditions of a distribution of money by chance. ”

“ Needless to say, we have nothing to do with the wisdom of the Board's requirement that the coerced dues be restored to the employees. Our decision can go no further than that, within the framework of the general authority given to it by Congress, the Board is empowered to find that when men pay dues to a company-dominated union, upon pain of forfeiting their jobs, it is the company which has in fact commanded the payment of the dues and it is the company which must make restoration. ”

“ It applies only to those organizers who for a pecuniary or financial consideration solicit such membership. It affects only the right of one to engage in the business as a paid organizer, and not the mere right of an individual to express his views on the merits of the union. ”

“ Every member at the expiration of twenty full years of membership shall be entitled to his share of the interest earned during the twentieth year of his membership by the property of the society, the funds of which can only be invested in the three or five per cent. ”

“ These national associations are ready to make loans on property anywhere, and sell their shares to any person without reference to his residence. In local associations the total amount of dues paid in by the shareholders forms the basis for the distribution of profits, while in most national associations only a portion of the dues paid in by the shareholders is considered in the distribution. For instance, in a national association the dues are generally 60 cents a share per month, out of which either 8 or 10 cents are carried to an expense fund, the remainder being credited on the loan fund. ”

“ In such a case there would be no expenditure for such a purpose of union funds.
'Mr. Magnuson. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, let me ask him another question. All the funds of labor unions come from dues paid by their members. All the activities of the unions are based upon expenditure of funds provided by dues. That money is in the union's treasury. ”

“ When many members pay the same amount of monh ly dues into the treasury of the union which dispenses the fund for what are, under the Court's opinion, both permitted and proscribed activities, how can it be told whose dues paid for what? Let us suppose a union with two members, each paying monthly dues of three dollars, and that one does not the other does not object to his dues being expended for 'proscribed activity'-whatever that phrase may mean. ”

“ The dues received from them for the national and district organizations make a very large annual total, and the obligations assumed in traveling expenses, holding of conventions, and general overhead cost, but most of all in strikes, are so heavy that an extensive financial business is carried on, money is borrowed, notes are given to banks, and in every way the union acts as a business entity, distinct from its members. ”

“ The necessity for prompt payment of dues ought to be manifest to every member. The Society has no income except from the $5 a year contributed by the annual members. No officer or member receives any salary, and the finances are carefully and economically managed by the Executive Council. We have no expense for rental for the Society’s headquarters, and have no recent record of any officer of the Society accepting even his traveling expenses in matters connected with the Society. ”

“ If he has not one hundred dollars we do not always exclude him. We simply take it out of his income. But you must remember that the Association is a great corporation, in which the shares are not transferable and one member can only own one share. The Association keeps all the machinery and sources of production in its exclusive control. Every person who enters to-day agrees to furnish twenty-five years’ labor. No person can receive the benefit of such a membership unless he so agrees. ”

“ If the money were paid pursuant to an arrangement which violated the statute, it can be ordered refunded provided this would best effectuate the statutory policies. * * * That the money may have been collected anyhow by a legal means does not privilege the use of an illegal procedure to obtain it.'↑ For example, an employee may be more willing to join a union which charges high dues and provides substantial benefits than a union which charges little and gives little. But the Board formula declares that in the case where the dues are higher the value of the loss of freedom of choice is greater. ”

“ The Board has here determined that the employees suffered definite loss in the amount of the dues deducted from their wages and that the effectuation of the policies of the Act requires reimbursement of those dues in full. ”

“ Whether the payments were made to the employees, who then contributed them to union trust funds in the form of higher union dues, or whether as here they passed straight from the employer to the trust funds, the final result is the same. And it is just as much in the interest of 'effectuat (ing) the policies of this Act,' and of making the employees whole, to require the payments in either case.↑ Steelworkers Trilogy, 363 U.S. 564, 574, 593, 80 S.Ct. ”