Members who resign cease paying dues and become "agency fee payers." MEA policy requires that fee payers renew their objections annually in order to receive a fee reduction.
Under current law, unions must provide non-member fee payers with a procedure to challenge the amount of their fees to ensure they are paying only for legitimate employee representation activities. According to the U. S. Supreme Court's ruling in Chicago Teachers Local 1 v. Hudson, the procedure for fee challenges must include
- enough information about the service fee to enable fee payers to assess the propriety of the fee and decide whether they wish to challenge the amount (this information must be provided prior to any deadline for filing an objection);
- a reasonably prompt opportunity to challenge disputed fee assessments before an impartial decision maker, such as a neutral arbitrator or the courts; and
- an explanation of the process for placing disputed fees in escrow should the objecting fee payer decide to challenge the appropriateness of the union's fee assessment. This guards against the inappropriate use of the fee while an objector's challenge is pending.
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