Know Your Workplace Rights: A Guide for Charter School Employees

resignation. Attempts to bring internal union charges against you for post-resignation conduct will be unsuccessful. If strikes by charter school employees who are considered public-sector employees are illegal in your state, you may not have to resign to avoid union fines for working. However, resignation would strengthen your position that you cannot lawfully be fined.

If you worked during a strike before resigning your union membership, are you protected from all fines? No, not when strikes by charter school employees are legal. Under the NLRA, and in those states where public-sector strikes are legal, even if you are now a non-member, the union can fine you for pre-resignation conduct, but not for postresignation acts. Fines are usually based on the number of days you worked as a union member during the strike. The courts generally hold that fines cannot be excessive. “Excessive” is not defined, but arguably, if the union’s fine exceeds the amount of money you earned before resigning, it is excessive.

If strikes by charter school employees who are considered public-sector employees are illegal in your state, you probably cannot lawfully be fined for working even before you resign.

Can the union’s constitution prohibit you from resigning during a strike?

No. It necessarily follows from the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 U.S. 209 (1977), that public-sector employees cannot constitutionally be prevented from resigning from a union. The NLRA and some state laws also guarantee the right to resign.

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