If employers want to stop playing the role of collection agency for unions, they better talk to the union first before yanking the plug on collecting union dues.

That's the message that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit delivered in finding that the Tribune Publishing Co. violated federal law when it canceled its direct-deposit system for collecting union dues in 2002 from workers at a Missouri newspaper.

The three-judge panel's April 28 ruling upheld an earlier finding by the National Labor Relations Board, which held that the company broke the law "when it changed the working conditions of its employees by ceasing to allow direct deposit of union dues without affording the union an opportunity to bargain about that conduct."

The appeals court agreed, saying the NLRB's decision "is supported by substantial evidence and is consistent with the law."

Employment attorney James R. Redeker, a partner at Philadelphia's Duane Morris, who has spent more than 40 years overseeing union contract negotiations, said the ruling sends a strong message to employers.

"The court said, 'You can't undo an agreement without bargaining with the union, even if it's a mistake," Redeker said. "I think it says to employers that you have to be very careful about making agreements, and then trying to undo those agreements...you can only do it after bargaining with a union."

Redeker, who represents employers in labor relations matters, admits he was surprised by the litigation, saying he was baffled as to why the Tribune Company "would litigate this issue for that long."

"What I find surprising is that the employer just didn't sit down with the union and say, 'we're not going to do it anymore," Redeker said. "Had they done that, they could have avoided this. They would have done what the law requires them to do, which is to bargain, and they still would have gotten what they wanted, which is no longer checking off dues."

Louis Michael Zinser of the Zinser Law Firm in Nashville, Tenn., who represented the Tribune Publishing Co., was unavailable for comment.

The NLRB declined comment.

According to court documents, the dues dispute involves a union representing printing press workers at one of the Tribune's daily newspapers in Columbia, Mo. In 1997, the company and union entered into a collective bargaining agreement that allowed employees to have their union dues withdrawn from their paychecks.

In 2001, when the contract expired, the company discontinued the payroll deduction of union dues because the law allowed for that. Shortly after, the union resorted to using the company's direct deposit policy, whereby employees would fill out direct deposit firms authorizing the withdrawal of their union dues.

According to court records, after one trial run of using the direct deposit forms for union dues, the company cancelled the practice, holding that "establishing direct deposit for dues was a mistake."

The union then filed a complaint with the labor board, alleging unfair labor practices. The NLRB agreed, as did the D.C. Circuit. Tribune Publishing Co. v. NLRB, No. 07-1455 (D.C. Cir.).

Reprinted with permission from The National Law Journal, © ALM Media Properties LLC. All rights reserved.