Ruling: Michigan Teachers Union Told to Allow Teachers to Resign at ANY Time

The Michigan Education Association has been illegally blocking its members from resigning from the union, the state's labor agency said Tuesday.

It ordered the union to start accepting resignations unconditionally, which could cause it massive membership losses. Labor organizations statewide could see similar losses if the ruling is applied broadly.

In three separate rulings Tuesday, Julia Stern, an administrative law judge with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, said the teachers' union was unfairly restricting its members' rights under the state's new right-to-work law by accepting their resignations only during August. The judge also faulted the union for not publicizing the one-month opt-out period to its members.

The union had rejected any resignations it received the other 11 months of the year. It wouldn't hold resignation letters that were sent early until the next August period. Members whose letters were rejected or who simply thought the state's 2012 right-to-work law meant they no longer had to pay dues discovered that the union considered them to still be members and would report them to collection agencies for nonpayment of dues.

While the three orders are specific to the teachers' union, it puts the state on record as saying that such practices are labor law violations. That is significant because limited opt-out periods are a common response by unions to right-to-work laws. Other unions attempting to adopt such policies could face similar legal challenges.

Stern ordered the union to eliminate the August-only language from its bylaws as well as to post notices at all unionized workplaces announcing that it had committed unfair labor practices and alerting members to their rights.

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