Agency shop

An agency shop is an employer who signs a collective bargaining agreement with a union that requires each employee to pay an "agency fee" to the union to cover the cost of the collective bargaining agreement negotiations. In general, Right to Work laws prohibit a requirement to pay full union dues, but allow recovery of negotiation costs. As a result, employees in an agency shop are not forced to pay their share of the political contributions that the union makes (perhaps to candidates that the employee does not want to support.) The alternative of having an agency shop eliminates the argument that non-union members benefit from collective bargaining agreements without paying their share of the cost of negotiations.

## See also[edit]

* compulsory unionism