General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Lack of Support Among Union Members for Democrats [View all]alarimer
(16,245 posts)Right now, all public sector employees, if they are not actually members of the unions, must pay a fee (typically less than union dues) to pay for the union's negotiating on their behalf. Now, they are not actually members in that there are some member benefits they do not get (like voting for officers), but they get many others. The argument being used is that the fee payers disagree with the unions politically and so, should have to support those activities. The work-around was to have them pay for only negotiating activities. But for the whiners that is not good enough and so they sued. They want to be free of all payments, yet still somehow benefit from the union. Closed shops are forbidden by law.
In practice this would do what you said, essentially eliminate public-sector unions. But I don't think it would apply to unions in general, unless there is another case out there that I am unaware of.