Replying to a message of Bob Klahn to Bob Ackley:

 BA>>>> Actually there is a precedent of sorts - requiring
 BA>>>> membership in a (private) labor
 BA>>>> organization in order to get or keep a job.

 BK>>>  Other than construction work I don't know of any place
 BK>>> union  membership is necessary to get a job.

 BA>> The Union Pacific Railroad requires union membership.
 BA>> Presumably the other big railroads (BNSF, NS, etc.) are
 BA>> also union shops.  UP has some of the most ridiculous
 BA>> (union driven) work rules and policies I've ever seen.

 BK>  Once you get hired you are enrolled in the union. But do
 BK> you  have to be in the union before you are hired? I
 BK> haven't heard of  that in the railroads.

IIRC if one is not already a member on is required to join a union
within 30 days.

 BA>> Back in the early 1990s the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks
 BA>> demanded that UP require membership in their union by all
 BA>> of the railroad's IT professionals.  The railroad said
 BA>> 'OK.'  The *employees* sued the railroad over that forced
 BA>> membership - and lost.

 BK>  They were already working for the railroad. Though salaried 
 BK> employees may be exempt, they usually are, it might depend
 BK> on  just what they do.

Most had been working for the railroad for several years.  The union
demanded the jobs reclassified as union jobs and the railroad agreed.
The alternative, I suppose, being a strike by the union - over people
who weren't and didn't want to become members.

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