I am a student who is home for the summer and hired on with a company for 'summer help.' During the interview and entire 'paper process' I was never informed that the company had a closed union, meaning I had to join to be employed. I actually did not know until after a month when they admitted to forgetting to mention it and told me to fill out automatic payroll deductions- which I refused.

So my question is 1. Is it lawful for companies in Maryland to have closed unions? (and if not, does anyone know the Article and Section)

and, 2. If they never mentioned the closed union during the hiring process, can they still force me to join (granted, I only have a month until I go back to school, and my summer help term is over- thus I don't want to pay all the start up Union dues and other dues)?

Maryland is not a right-to-work state (in right-to-work states, you cannot be forced to join a union in order to get a job). If you are not in a right-to-work state, under the National Labor Relations Act, you cannot be required to be a member of a union or pay it any monies as a condition of employment unless the collective bargaining agreement between your employer and your union contains a provision requiring all employees to either join the union or pay union fees. Even if there is such a provision in the agreement, the most that can be required of you is to pay the union fees (generally called an "agency fee.")

For more information, the National Right to Work organization has a website with helpful information. http://www.nrtw.org/