Public unions see only modest decline after court ruling

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Union membership among public employees has fallen only slightly in the nation’s most labor-friendly states since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a year ago that government workers no longer could be required to pay union fees.

An analysis of federal data conducted for The Associated Press shows the decline in union membership rates has been larger in states that had previously allowed mandatory fees to be deducted from the paychecks of 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.

Anticipating that the Supreme Court might end the mandatory union fees, some labor-friendly states enacted laws last year to protect membership rolls while unions redoubled their recruitment efforts.