Major public unions have lost more than 200,000 members since 2019. This is the conclusion of a report analyzing the impact of the Supreme Court´s ruling that a government employee cannot be forced to join a union in order to keep his or her job.
The study, conducted by the Commonwealth Foundation, found that the four largest public unions - AFT, AFSCME, NEA and SEIU - lost nearly 219,000 members in just three years. However, the Janus v. AFSCME ruling has only accelerated a decline that had been occurring previously. "The Janus decision to end forced unionism for government workers accelerated a long-term decline in membership," the paper noted.
Although this is a significant figure, it is less than expected.
Abuses and foul play by labor unions
Unions have been forced to find new ways to convince workers to join. To that end, they are "running very aggressive campaigns" that have proven effective in both Virginia and Colorado. In addition, some cases of abuse or foul play on their part are being reported, says Max Nelsen, director of labor policy at the Freedom Foundation, in a statement to Just the News:
Unions have gone to great lengths to institute other coercive and deceptive dues collection practices, including falsifying employee signatures on union membership forms. Unfortunately for them, we know from our daily interactions with public employees that people are constantly enraged by the overbearing and unethical practices of unions and, as the data shows, it is costing them members.
Ideology and attachment to power
For Nelsen, "it would be better for everyone if government unions would moderate themselves and try to persuade employees to join voluntarily on their merits, but they have shown that they are too ideologically leftist and too wedded to the politics of power to change willingly."
Added to this, according to the Freedom Foundation, there is another problem: the ideological bias of the unions. Historically, they have always advocated and cooperated with Democratic policies. This would also be costing them quotas and leaving them unable to reach workers with other interests or viewpoints.
