The United Auto Workers refused to allow a Michigan member to resign her union membership, according to a legal complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board. That constitutes a challenge to the state’s new right to work law, which forbids workers from being obligated to join or otherwise support labor unions.
Kathy Sulkowski, a truck driver with CEVA Logistics U.S. Inc., filed the charge with the NLRB Friday. She is being represented by the National Right to Work Foundation, a nonprofit group supported by business groups.
According to her complaint, Sulkowski notified the UAW Local 600 in August of her desire to resign her membership. On Sept. 18, Local 600 told her that her request was denied and that to be released from membership she had to show up in person at the office and provide photo identification.
“UAW union officials’ latest tactic to show up in person and furnish photo identification is designed to dissuade or intimidate workers from exercising their rights to refrain from membership,” said NRTW President Mark Mix.
A Local 600 spokesman could not be reached for comment.
The Michigan legislature passed the right to work law in late 2012 over the objections of the state’s once-powerful labor unions, who argued the measure was a political ploy to weaken them. The law forbids labor-management contracts in which workers must join the union or pay it fees as a condition of employment.
Some union members in the Wolverine State have found it difficult to invoke the new rights since unions are typically left in charge of managing their memberships. Union leaders have been setting up strict procedures for members to opt out.
The Michigan Education Association, for example, allows members to opt out only during August, when most teachers go on vacation. Resignations must be posted during that one-month window, the union says, even though the right to work law does not require that timeframe. Both late and early resignations are rejected and the union members are automatically re-upped for another year, obligating them to pay another year’s worth of dues. MEA has even sent debt-collection agencies after members who attempted to resign and quit paying dues.
An administrative law judge with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission said last month the teachers’ union was unfairly restricting its members’ rights and ordered it to start accepting the resignations. The union said it would appeal the ruling.
