Why should we fight for agency shop status (also called union security)?
Right now, our union doesn’t have the strength it should have. The strongest unions (those that win the best contracts) are agency shops, in which all employees covered by the contract must pay dues (or dues equivalent), or union shops, in which all employees must join the union. In an open shop (where people do not automatically become union members when they start a bargaining unit job) it is much more difficult for us to get a critical mass of members signed up. This leaves us in a minority position much of the time, and management can take advantage of that by refusing to take our contract proposals seriously, and by regularly violating the contract because they think that no one will notice. There was an open shop at the Museum of Modern Art for many years (the staff there are also Local 2110 members). When they went on strike there in 2000, winning an agency shop was the key issue. The Museum was trying to cut back on health care for our members, and the union members realized th
