The Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s Director of Labor Policy F. Vincent Vernuccio was quoted recently in The Detroit News’ latest coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association that could make all public sector employees right-to-work.

Vernuccio explains that half the states in the country are already right to work and this case would simply extend that freedom to public employees in the other 25.

The Mackinac Center analyzed U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and found that, over 14 years, union membership among private-sector workers covered by collective-bargaining agreements was 93 percent in states with agency fees and 84 percent in right-to-work states.

The center also looked at public-sector union statistics in eight right-to-work states and found membership rates in the 80 percent range, with no significant pattern of decline.

In Michigan, where the right-to-work law took effect in March 2013, union membership among state and local government employees covered by labor agreements fell to 95.7 percent last year from a high of 98.4 percent in 2008, according to another Mackinac analysis.

“The sky is not going to fall,” Vernuccio said. “As we’ve seen in right-to-work states across the country, union members who see the value in their unions continue to support it.”

Read the full article at The Detroit News.

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