RealClearPolitics reports on the impact of the Supreme Court's 2018 decision in Janus vs. AFSCME. It permitted government workers to not join unions representing workers, effectively creating a "right to work" for government employees.
Author Jarrett Skorup works for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy which has been doing research on the impact of Janus.
We estimate that 22.2% of public sector workers covered by union contracts have opted out of membership since 2017. That’s much higher than the Current Population Survey indicates, and it means that nearly 1.2 million people have chosen not to be represented by government unions.
Every worker who opts out of a government union deprives it of revenue. Using a conservative estimate of $600 in annual dues per worker, government unions are losing at least $720 million in revenue per year. Much of this money would be going toward electoral politics.
The union decline is especially apparent in a few key states. In California, nearly 30% of public workers – almost 200,000 in total – have opted out of government unions. In Colorado, the number is over 50%, and in New Mexico, it’s over 60%.
This is particularly good news for those of us who believe government workers should not be represented by unions. Full disclosure: Pre-Janus, I was represented by a faculty union in CA but chose not to join it. I may have been required to pay in lieu fees for the questionable 'services' they provided.
