No employee within the United States can be legally forced to be a full union member by paying full union dues.

However, in Closed Shop States, an employee can be forced to pay union defined fees or be fired from their job. It doesn’t matter if you are a union member or not.

• There are twenty-three (23) states that are considered closed shop states. They are:
• Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington.

• There are twenty-seven (27) states that are Right-To-Work states. They are:
• Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,
• Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.