California Policy Center: "This Labor Day, CA government unions have 77,000 fewer members"

 

This Labor Day, California government unions have 77,000 fewer members

Dear Arthur,

As Californians gear up to celebrate Labor Day weekend, consider this good news: Government unions in California are facing their lowest membership numbers in decades.

Five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that government workers cannot be compelled to pay union dues or fees as a condition of their employment. Forcing people to join a group violates their First Amendment right of free assembly; forcing them to pay for union messaging violates their First Amendment free-speech right.

As a result of that landmark decision, government unions across the nation have seen their membership rolls plummet — and no state has seen a greater drop than California.

That decline is due to the generosity of California Policy Center’s donors. In the past five years, hundreds of freedom-loving Americans took the problem head-on. They poured almost $7 million dollars into helping public employees unshackle themselves from union dues.

These donors are the heroes who funded our campaign to help government employees leave their unions.

In fact, since we launched our Janus Project, California’s government unions have lost a whopping 29 percent of their members compared to 22 percent nationwide. Government unions in the Golden State are down nearly 400,000 members — now at their lowest membership since the 1990s.

That translates into a loss of $337 million in membership dues every year! That’s money California unions can’t use to influence local and state elections, push left-wing policies that hurt California’s working families, or lobby union-backed politicians who pull the strings in our state legislature and local governments.

How do we know California government union membership is cratering? Thanks to CPC’s unique model of using Public Records Act requests (PRAs) to access government payroll records, we're able to reveal the actual numbers when it comes to membership totals instead of taking the unions’ word for it.

In fact, California government unions have 77,000 fewer members since just last year!

This Labor Day, consider celebrating worker freedom by leaving your union — or by supporting our outreach efforts to union workers by making a donation to CPC’s Janus Project in any amount. All contributions made over Labor Day weekend will go directly toward our digital outreach to union employees.

To learn more about leaving your union, visit mypaymysay.com.