JILLIAN KAY MELCHIOR: Michigan unions are finding sneaky ways to exact dues — but workers are fighting back.

William “Ray” Arthur, a teacher and wrestling coach at Petoskey Senior High School, and Miriam Chanski, a Coopersville kindergarten teacher, tried to quit the teachers’ union after Michigan adopted legislation to become the 24th right-to-work state in the U.S.

Both Arthur and Chanski wrote letters informing the MEA that they wished to leave, but neither was aware that, according to an obscure part of the union’s 1973 bylaws, members can resign only during the month of August. Though the information for the August opt-out period is technically on the MEA website, it is buried and doesn’t pop up in most simple searches.