Union security

The Taft-Hartley Act concerned the issue of union security which refers to various requirements written into collective bargaining contracts that specify who must join the union and under what conditions. Typical union security requirements have included for example -

1. Closed shops - workers must be a member of the union before they can be hired.
2. Union shops - once hired, a worker must become a union member within 30 days as a condition of continued employment.
3. Agency shops - workers do not have to join a union as a condition of employment but they must pay a monthly fee in lieu of dues for the services that the union provides.

The Taft-Hartley Act made the closed shop illegal and gave individual states the option of prohibiting the union shop through so called right to work laws. Under Section 14(b) of the act, the union shop is legal unless an individual state passes legislation expressly banning it. As of 1987, 21 states mostly in the South and Midwest had done so. Proponents of right to work laws argue that the union shop is a form of compulsory unionism and that no one should be forced to join the union as a condition of employment. Opponents of right to work laws argue that the laws allow nonmembers to get a free ride since by law the union must represent every worker in the bargaining unit even if the worker does not financially support the union. One remedy to the free-rider problem has been the agency shop which is legal in about one-half of the right to work states.