Question

You are an avionics technician employed by a U.S. airline, all of whose maintenance personnel are represented by a union and working under a union contract with the company. You dislike unions, don’t want to be a member of the union or to have to pay union dues, and don’t want the union representing your interests.

Can you opt out and cut your own deal with management?

Explain.

Answer 1

As per the provision in the National Labour Relations Act(NLRA) a individual is free to opt out of the union if he/she chooses to do so. The only flip side is that in that case the technician would not be working as somebody who has   freedom of association. As far as having a deal with the management is concerned the it would depend totally on the place where you work, it is difficult to cut out a deal with the management in most of the cases. This is due to the fact that some unions exercise collective bargaining which is applicable to all employees. But the employee will have to pay the fee to the union.So, as it seems there is no merit in opting out of the union as the management cannot cut out a separate deal as all employees as entitled to benefits as agreed upon by collective bargaining.

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