The Bible teaches that Christians should not be part of a labor union, for reasons that include those I discussed in my post “Christians and Labor Unions: An Unequal Yoke.”

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What rights does a religious objector to union membership have in the United States?  We will look at that question in this post. (Note: I am NOT a lawyer and I am NOT giving you legal advice. If you have a legal question about labor unions, please talk to a lawyer at the National Right to Work Foundation.)

Your Rights Concerning Labor Unions in a Right to Work State

If you live in a Right to Work state, it is very easy for you to avoid being part of a labor union.  Big Labor has a very limited ability to attempt to coerce or compel anyone to join it or force you to give it money in Right to Work states.  Whether you have a religious objection or you simply do not like unions, perhaps because of Biblical political views favoring freedom and a free market, nobody can force you to either join a union or force you to pay dues or any equivalent in order to work.

I know of someone who was residing in a state that had just passed a right to work law.  This person (we will use the generic singular English pronoun “he” without necessarily specifying this person’s gender, and call him “Joe.”) had gotten a government job at a college in a state that had recently passed a Right to Work law.  Without Joe’s consent, the labor union took dues out of Joe’s first paycheck.  Joe was going to file a religious objection and contacted the National Right to Work Foundation.  However, the lawyers at the Right to Work Foundation pointed out to Joe that his state had recently passed a Right to Work law.  Consequently, the labor union had no right to compel him, or anyone else at his job, to pay dues. He did not need to file a religious objection at all, but could simply ask for his money back and explain that he did not need to pay the union because of the Right to Work law.  Joe followed their advice, and after some time the union refunded him the dues that had illegally been taken from his paycheck without his consent.  Not that long afterwards an email was sent to all college employees–many, many people–stating that union dues would no longer be taken automatically from everyone’s paycheck; instead, people had to affirmatively consent to having the dues–which were now voluntary–taken out.  Only a minority of Joe’s coworkers (so it seems) voluntarily chose to give the union the money that they had forced everyone to pay before, but until Joe objected, the union had illegally been taking huge amounts of money from every or almost every college employee.  Joe’s taking a stand for Biblical, Christian principles likely cost the pro-abortion, pro-sodomy, anti-Biblical authority union millions of dollars as they were no longer able to illegally continue to take money from everyone–something they had been doing for some time in defiance of the new laws in Joe’s state.

Your Rights Concerning Labor Unions in a Non-Right to Work State

Let us say that you live in a state that does not have a Right to Work law.  What can you do?  Even in such states, secular people cannot be forced to become members of a labor union or to pay full dues–they can only be forced to pay a smaller “agency fee.”  What about a Christian with a religious objection? Based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and principles affirmed in the First Amendment and reaffirmed in Janus v. AFSCME, religious objectors, even in states without Right to Work protections, cannot be forced to:

1.) Join labor unions as a condition of employment.

2.) Pay union dues.

3.) Pay an equivalent to union dues to a a charity.

The legal reasoning for these facts is explained in the excellent article by Blaine Hutchinson and Bruce N. Cameron in Baylor Law Review vol. 75.2 (2023): “Jamus’s Solution for Title VII Religious Objectors.”  (Again, I am not a lawyer and I am not giving you legal advice.)  If your sincerely held religious beliefs prevent you from being able to join or fund a union in good conscience, you cannot be discriminated against any more than you can be discriminated against because of your skin color.  “We will not hire you because of your religious beliefs that do not allow you in good conscience to join a labor union and pay it dues” and “We will not hire you because you are black” are equally illegal in all fifty of these United States.

This writer knows of someone who lives in a non-right to work state (we will call this person “John,” and refer to the person as “him,” without necessarily specifying that the person is a man, not a woman.)  When John was hired at his new job at a large company, he was given a large amount of paperwork to sign as part of his onboarding.  One page of the paperwork said that he was agreeing to join the union and to pay union dues.  He told the Human Resources person who was doing the onboarding that he did not consent to join the union, nor to pay union dues, because he had a religious objection.  The HR manager told John that he “must” join the union and must complete the union paperwork.  He consequently completed the paperwork, but instead of checking the boxes to join the union wrote on the paper that he respectfully declined to join because of his religious objection.  That was as far as things went, and John was left alone for a few years; he was not a union member (unlike the vast majority of his coworkers who believed the illegal lie that HR was saying that everyone “must” join the union) and dues were not being deducted from his paychecks.

However, a few years later Human Resources contacted John and said that he needed to complete new paperwork concerning the union.  He was told to fill out the form about union dues; it was “mandatory” that he complete the form. He crossed out the “yes” checkbox and wrote “no” on the form next to where it said to join the union, and wrote on the form that he did not consent to join the union and did not authorize dues deductions from his paycheck.

Shortly after this, union dues were deducted from his paycheck, not only without his consent, but against John’s explicit affirmations that he did not want to join or fund the union because of his religious objection.  He inquired (in writing) about this, and the union wrote that he must pay dues in order to continue to work at a union site.  Human Resources also wrote that he must pay dues.  The only alternatives John had were quitting or being fired and then, if someone was interested, he could be re-hired (maybe), lose all his benefits and seniority, and start from scratch at a non-union site.  These actions threatening to fire John and telling him that he needed to pay dues to keep his job were illegal.

John reached out to the National Right to Work Foundation and explained his case to lawyers that, for free, help those with religious objections to union membership.  (They have other lawyers that provide free legal counsel to those who do not have religious objections.)  His Right to Work Foundation lawyers–who had experience in labor law all the way up to going to the Supreme Court–sent an excellent cease-and-desist letter to his employer warning them of their violations of the law.  John and some of his fellow Christians also prayed to the Lord of heaven, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, about this situation.  John’s Right to Work lawyers filed charges against his employer and the union with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for their illegal actions in seeking to force him to violate his religious beliefs and for deducting dues from his paycheck without his consent.

In answer to the prayers of God’s people and through the secondary agency of the skilled lawyers at the National Right to Work Foundation, John’s employer agreed to: 1.) Not fire him; 2.) Not require him to join the union; 3.) Not compel him to leave the union site for the tiny portion of non-union sites that his employer possesses; 4.) Not compel him to pay dues to the union or an equivalent to a charity.  They also agreed to compensate John because of the mental distress he endured as a result of the illegal threats to fire him, as well as paying legal fees to the NRWF.  John was also not compelled to sign a non-disclosure agreement about the whole situation.  His lawyers told him that it was an excellent outcome.  Praise the Lord!

We should thank God for and pray for the continuance of the religious liberties that we have here in the United States (1 TImothy 2:1ff.).

Once again, I am not a lawyer and am not giving you legal advice.  If you are in a situation where you have a question about labor law in relation to labor unions and religious objections, you should consult a lawyer instead of believing what some guy says on the Internet who insists he is not a lawyer,  is not giving legal advice, and who tells you about testimonies that you are not able to verify.  Reading what law journals say on this subject could certainly also be helpful, but that is also no substitute for professional legal counsel.

Do not join a labor union because the Bible teaches that you should not do it.  If someone tries to make you, if you are in the United States, you have legal rights, both in Right to Work and in non-Right to Work states.  The Apostle Paul used his rights as a Roman citizen (Acts 22:25ff.), and you can utilize your rights as an American citizen to serve the Lord with a pure conscience, seeking to live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Please do not speculate on how the author of this post knows that the testimonials recounted here are accurate. Comments speculating on that question will probably not be published. If they are accidentally published, they will not be answered, but will be deleted.

TDR