The NLRB now holds that employers may not unilaterally stop union dues checkoff after a collective-bargaining agreement expires. Valley Hospital Medical Center, Inc. (10/03/2022) [PDF].

This issue has had a long and tortured history.

Bethlehem Steel (1962) held that an employer was free to end dues checkoff upon contract expiration.

Lincoln Lutheran (2015) held dues checkoff to be subject to the general statutory rule requiring employers to maintain most terms and conditions of employment after contract expiration to facilitate bargaining for a new agreement.

Valley Hospital I (2019) permitted employers to stop checkoff when a contract expires.

Valley Hospital Medical Center, Inc. (10/03/2022) (on remand from the 9th Circuit) reverses Valley Hospital I and returns to the rule that an employer, following contract expiration, must continue to honor a dues-checkoff arrangement established in that contract until either the parties have reached a successor collective-bargaining agreement or a valid overall bargaining impasse permits unilateral action by the employer.