Yesterday, June 28, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court decided by a 5-4 vote to revoke the long-standing ability of Employee Organizations, Associations and Unions to require non members to pay a "fair share fee" also known as an "agency shop fee" to help support an employee organization's representation costs in those states such as California where state law has authorized those fees for public sector employees.
As applied to UPEC, this means that employees who choose not to join UPEC will not be required to pay the alternate fair share fee. Because UPEC has a certain level of responsibility to represent all employees whether they choose to join or not we are developing a service model for non members where they will be charged for representational services to the extent allowed by law. As this is developing law, we will be announcing our new policy in the near future. Likely, it will include non members being referred to our law firm for the option to retain the firm for discipline representation including investigation representation, all on an hourly rate basis.
We intend to charge nonmembers for representation services to the extent allowed by law as it is not fair for non members to drive up costs for those employees who choose to join and support representation through UPEC dues.
We encourage previous fee payers to join UPEC so that your representation is assured. Consider joining and realizing all the benefits of UPEC membership including the right to participate and vote on contract negotiation decisions!
We encourage current members to continue to belong to and support UPEC as we do not want to reduce our current excellent representation services! Thank you for your support and participation!
TOGETHER WE WILL REMAIN STRONG! DIVIDED WE WILL FALL!
Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions about this new situation that affects how we do our representation for you.
Sincerely,
Steve Allen
Business Manager/Secretary Treasurer
530-604-4874 (text works well)
sallen@upec792.com
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