OTTAWA

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that your union has the right to some of your basic information, whether you like it or not.

The cases pitted a worker's right not to associate with a union versus a union's right to have the means to effectively represent its membership.

The court ruled 6-1 in favour of Canada's federal public service union, agreeing that it's reasonable for a union to collect the home mailing address and telephone number of its members.

Federal employee Elizabeth Bernard did not want to be part of her union, but under Canadian law, still had to pay union dues and remained part of one of the union's bargaining units.

An employee who chooses not to be part of a union but still pays dues is called a "Rand" employee.

Bernard argued that her privacy rights and her charter right to freedom of association were violated when the federal government gave some of her personal info to her union.

Bernard's privacy rights were not violated, the court said, because the information was used for the purpose for which it was collected and the info was properly safeguarded from misuse.

"While an employee is undoubtedly free not to join the union and to decide to become a Rand employee, he or she may not opt out of the exclusive bargaining relationship, nor the representational duties that a union owes to its employees," the court stated.