What are "Beck" rights, where do they stem from, and in what way are they related to agency shop agreements?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

"Beck" rights are rights granted to union members by a 1988 Supreme Court case that
questioned the right of unions to utilize union dues money for political purposes. In this case,
the Supreme Court ruled that workers who are covered under the union contract, but who
chose to remain nonunion, cannot be forced to pay full union dues. Rather, they are allowed to
request a reimbursement of that portion of union dues money that is used for something other
than collective bargaining and administration of the contract. While seemingly simple, it can be
difficult to disentangle individual union expenses and sort them into neat categories. For
example, it is not entirely clear whether union organizing expenses could be considered as
related to collective bargaining (the more members, the greater the collective power). In
addition, it is not always clear at what level the expenditures should be calculated (e.g., the
national or local level).
"Beck" rights are related to agency shop agreements in that they essentially turn any union
shop agreement into an agency shop agreement since a union member is always able to
request reimbursement for the political part of their dues money. This obviously has the effect
of reducing union dues revenues and results in weaker overall labor representation.