AP: Public unions see only modest decline after court ruling
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Anticipating that the U.S. Supreme Court might end mandatory union fees for public employees, some labor-friendly states enacted laws last year to protect membership rolls while unions redoubled their recruitment efforts.
Those steps appear to have paid off, at least initially.
Union membership among public employees has fallen only slightly in the nation's most unionized states since the Supreme Court ruled a year ago that government workers no longer could be required to pay union fees, according to an analysis of federal data conducted for The Associated Press.
The decline in union membership rates has been larger in states that had previously allowed mandatory fees to be deducted from the paychecks of public school teachers, police and other government workers than in states that had not. Yet the drop has been less than what some labor leaders had feared following the high court decision, which reversed a 41-year-old legal precedent.
"People were saying that we were going to be buried, that this was going to be our death knell, that this was going to destroy public-sector unions in this country. And it did not do that," said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "As a matter of fact, I believe that we have a much more engaged membership."
Reinvigorated union membership drives may have staved off some of the anticipated losses. The court ruling came amid a multi-year effort by AFSCME to improve one-on-one communication with current and potential members to build a stronger, more loyal membership. Other public-sector unions undertook similar efforts.
"We went back to basics, re-creating community, engaging with our members," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. "By and large, they stayed with the union."
The Supreme Court ruled in June 2018 that AFSCME could no longer deduct mandatory fees from Illinois child-support worker Mark Janus, who had declined to join the local union. More broadly, the high court said it violated the First Amendment free-speech rights of public employees to force them to subsidize CONTINUE READING: AP: Public unions see only modest decline after court ruling | Politics | pilotonline.com
