During a recent bargaining session, Harvard university negotiators suggested that student employees should be allowed to “retain the right” to choose whether or not they become members of the university’s new union. Union organizers do not support this idea, and have expressed feelings that this proposal is more reminiscent of an “open shop” as opposed to the “agency shop” that the union is trying to establish. An agency shop which utilizes a “union-security” clause would require all members of the bargaining group to pay union dues. Harvard contests the union operating as an agency shop because leaders feel that it might compromise the university’s mission.
See "Harvard Proposes Student Workers Be Allowed to Choose Whether to Join Union", James S. Bikes & Ruoqi Zhang, The Harvard Crimson, February 1, 2019