Supreme Court could deliver crippling blow to Big Labor
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In the first year since the Wolverine State adopted a right to work law in 2013, SEIU Healthcare Michigan lost a staggering 80 percent of its members.
The case illustrates a dirty secret of the modern labor movement: A lot of its rank and file members don't want to be in a union in the first place and will leave if given the chance.
What right to work did in Michigan, the Supreme Court might soon do nationally: In the case of Harris v. Quinn, the justices must decide if Illinois state government can force its own public sector employees to participate in a union. If the ruling is “no,” that could effectively extend right to work laws to all public sector employees.
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The possibility has labor law experts closely watching the case. About half of all union members nationally - more than 7 million people - work in the public sector. Many, possibly a majority, are in workplaces that were unionized before they were hired, so they never had a chance to decide for themselves. Many may leave, hurting Big Labor's already-sliding membership numbers.