That has been my experience as well. People from both large companies and government tend, more often than not, to have personalities congruent with bureaucracy - there is a level of comfort and security that comes with the size and resources of the organization, but it kills drive and efficiency... In small companies, if something needs to get done and there is nobody else with experience in the task... congratulations, you just signed up for a new, probably stressful, learning experience. But shit gets done... Of course, small companies are usually little dictatorships, and if the dictator (e.g., owner) is an actual dick, then you have to deal with that.

jwiegley, Under the U.S. Supreme Court case "Communications Workers v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735 (1988)" unions cannot use non-union dues to pay for political activities. They are technically restricted to collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance adjustments (i.e., related directly to the contract of employment and its administration and terms and conditions). However, many unions take 100% of the fees and do as you described, required employees to opt-out if they object. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case arising out of the State of Washington, "Davenport v. Wash. Educ. Ass'n, 127 S. Ct. 2372 (2007)" where the State passed a law prohibiting union use of non-member dues for political purposes without affirmative permission. The union had a similar set-up to the one you describe, in that it collected 100% fees from non-members, and gave the the option, twice per year, to opt-out. The Supreme Court upheld the Washington law which required permission beforehand to use dues for political purposes. Even though no such affirmative duty to get pre-permission exists under California law (to my knowledge), there may be a legal argument based on the Supreme Court precedent which would allow for a class-action challenging the collection methods you described. You may want to search around to see if any public interest groups or class action firms have taken notice of the fees collections that you described. (IAAL - But I don't practice in this area and of course, nothing herein is intended to be legal advice or acted upon as such)