The U.S. Supreme Court decided that labor unions may legally waive the right of their members to sue over employment discrimination through arbitration clauses. A previous Supreme Court ruling in 1974 limited arbitration clauses, promoting three night watchmen in New York to sue a building owner over alleged age discrimination, despite a union agreement requiring arbitration in the matter. The new ruling overrules that decision on the premise that arbitration preserves employees' substantive legal rights equally to the courtroom. In response to criticism that such a ruling allows unions to bargain away vital rights (particularly for minorities), Justice Thomas commented that "the benefits of organized labor outweigh the sacrifice of individual liberty that this system necessarily demands."
See "Justices Back Arbitration, Not Suits, Over Job Bias", Jess Bravin, The Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2009