Unions sometimes attempt to impose limitations upon the right of a member to resign.
However, a decision of the Supreme Court in Abood
v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 U.S. 209 (1977), a Foundation-supported
lawsuit, makes clear that you cannot constitutionally be prevented from
resigning from your union at any time. Some states, but not all, also have
statutes that guarantee public employees the right to resign.

If you work in a Right to Work state, or neither
state law nor the contract between your employer and the union contains
a provision requiring you to join the union or pay union fees, after resigning,
you would have no obligations whatsoever to the union. (However, if you
have signed a dues deduction authorization, that authorization may contain
a limitation on when it can be revoked.)

If you work in a non-Right to Work state and state law or the contract
does contain a provision requiring you to join the union or pay union fees,
after resigning you would still have to pay union fees (generally called
"agency fees").

As a nonmember, you would have a right to object to the amount of the agency
fees and obtain a reduction of your compulsory payments so that they do
not include the part of dues that is used for purposes other than collective
bargaining, contract administration, and grievance adjustment.

The decision to resign is yours alone. In addition to the reduction in
your financial obligations to the union, as a nonmember you would not be
subject to union rules and discipline. The union would have to continue
to represent you fairly and without discrimination in all matters subject
to collective bargaining, and you could not be denied any benefits under
the labor contract with your employer because of nonmembership.

On the other hand, you would not have the right to vote on ratification
of the contract or election of union officers, and there may be benefits
provided under the union’s constitution or bylaws that are not available
to nonmembers (however, a nonmember cannot be charged a share of the costs
of member-only benefits).

If you would like to see a sample union resignation letter for a Right
to Work state, or where neither state law nor the contract requires you
to join the union or pay union fees, click
here. You should check your union’s constitution and bylaws to see if
it specifies to whom a resignation must be sent.

Although you may wish to include in your objection letter the line that
says your objection is continuing and permanent, some unions will not honor
this and will make you annually renew your objections. The courts have issued
inconsistent decisions on this point.

If you would like to see a sample union resignation letter for a non-Right
to Work state where state law or the contract does require you to
join theunion or pay union fees, click here.
You should check with the union to see if it has a policy concerning when
and to whom objections to the amount of the union fees should be submitted.
For links to union objection policies on the Internet, click
here.