Employer vs. Union: Two Relationships – OPEIU Local 109 Training

Here’s the mix-up that makes people think they have no rights. There are two different relationships in your working life, governed by two different sets of rules — and they get blurred together all the time.

Keep these straight:

You ⇄ your employer — bargaining, contracts, disputes on the job. That relationship runs on the Railway Labor Act (RLA). That’s the subject of course REP100, not this one.

You ⇄ your union — voting, speaking, running for office, fair internal process. That relationship runs on the LMRDA and our constitutions. That’s this course.

When someone says “I didn’t know I had any rights,” it’s almost always because these two got blurred. This course is about the second one: your rights within our union. Keep that line clear and everything in the lessons ahead falls into place.

A quick note: this course is general union-rights education, not legal advice. It explains your rights in general terms — it can’t decide your specific situation. If you’re ever facing internal discipline or an investigation, treat that as a moment to check with union leadership before you act; Lesson 4 covers exactly that.

💡 Think first: True or false — the Railway Labor Act governs your rights inside the union, like voting and running for office. Decide, then click.

False. The RLA governs your relationship with your employer — bargaining, contracts, disputes on the job. That’s the subject of REP100.

Your rights inside the union — voting, speaking, running for office, fair internal process — come from the LMRDA and our constitutions. That’s this course. If you said “true,” you’re in the majority; this is the exact blur this whole topic exists to clear up, so it’s worth a second read.