Michigan teachers got Right To Work legislation passed six years ago. Teacher's Union membership is no longer mandatory. Guess what. From Michigan's Capital Confidential:
Dues-Paying Membership In Teachers Union Has Collapsed Since Right-To-Work
By December 2013, Michigan’s new right-to-work law had been in effect for nine months.
The Michigan Education Association was collecting dues from 113,147 active members. Its spokesman said the union’s response to the new law was to get the word out to members about what the MEA could do for them.
And the result six years down the road?
Six years later, the MEA’s active, dues-paying membership has fallen to 78,475, down 31%. That is despite the sales pitches and contract extensions.
Under right-to-work, employees in workplaces organized by a union – including people in most government and school jobs – can no longer be compelled to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.
“We don’t know what to expect,” the MEA’s Doug Pratt told the Detroit Free Press when the law was enacted in December 2013. “What we can do is continue to explain to our members why membership is of value. Have we had to increase our efforts on that? Sure we have.”
They were not offering anything of perceived value so the customers stopped buying once it was no longer mandatory. Classical example of market forces.
Do not get me wrong - unions very much had their place in the American work force 100 years ago. Workers were being horribly exploited, the idea of picking up and moving to a different city was completely foreign to most people and the wages were not sustainable. The unions helped a lot but they have not kept up with the times.
What is worse is that in some cases, they have negotiated unreasonable benefits and pensions and the employers (State of Illinois - I am looking at you) are unable to fund them.
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