Union membership declines slightly among telecommuting California state workers

Union membership dropped slightly among California state workers in 2021, according to data from the State Controller’s Office, underscoring the ongoing challenge of recruiting new members during a pandemic.

Across state government, about 66% of employees paid union dues in October, according to the most recent available data from the controller’s office, which deducts dues from union members’ paychecks.

That’s down from about 67% in August 2020. More specifically, the rate of dues-paying members dropped by about seven-tenths of a percentage point.

The state’s total rank-and-file workforce shrank by about 1,500 employees from last year to this year, reaching about 190,500 in October. But the number of dues-paying union members dropped even more, by 2,345 employees. About 125,500 state employees were paying union dues in October, according to the data.

Many state employees, including new hires, continue to work remotely, making recruitment more challenging for union representatives who before the COVID-19 pandemic counted on in-person meetings to sign people up.

“As we saw last year, the pandemic created more obstacles to signing up new hires,” Ken Jacobs, a professor at the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, said in an email.

The data don’t say how many employees dropped their membership or how many new hires decided against signing up. As California moves toward a future in which many employees will be able to work remotely all or some of the time, unions will have to find new ways to recruit, Jacobs said.

“The slow drip of fewer new workers signing up could take a toll over time,” he said in the email. “To recruit and retain members, public sector unions will need to take additional steps to increase worker engagement and participation.”

Membership fell or stayed flat for 11 of the 12 unions that represent various groups of state workers. The exception was Cal Fire Local 2881, which saw a 6% gain in membership. The firefighters’ union’s numbers vary more than other groups due to the seasonal nature of the work.

The reductions mean revenue dips for the nonprofit unions, which depend on dues for daily operations including paying staff members who represent employees in workplace disputes, negotiate contracts and lobby legislators.

Union revenue decline since Janus vs. AFSCME

At SEIU Local 1000, the largest state worker union, members pay 1.5% of their salary in dues, capped at $90 per month. Local 1000’s budget for last year was about $48 million.

The union represented 100,709 employees in October and about 53% of them paid dues, according to the data. That’s down from about 54% last year, a loss of 660 dues-payers.

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the ability of public employee unions to collect fees from employees who don’t pay dues. Union membership has declined by only about 5% since the court’s ruling in Janus vs. AFSCME, but unions suffered big revenue hits with the loss of fees.

Local 1000’s revenue dropped from about $67 million in 2017 to $49 million in 2019 after the Janus ruling, according to tax filings.

Richard Louis Brown, the union’s president since June, declined to discuss union membership trends last week, but in October he shared cancellation data during a Facebook presentation.

The data showed a spike of about 1,000 cancellations just after the court’s Janus ruling, and another spike of 518 cancellations in July 2020 as the pandemic set in.

Cancellations ranged between 100 and 200 for each month from summer 2020 through September of this year, according to the data.

High membership in public safety unions

The union represents nine units of workers, ranging from office analysts to prison nurses. Membership stayed flat among the largest group, representing about 58,000 office employees.

The rate dropped by 4% for three groups at Local 1000: registered nurses, custodians and a group including librarians and educators.

The only other group with a 4% drop was prison counselors represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

For the rest of the state’s unions, membership was flat or dropped between 1% and 3%.

The state’s two primary law enforcement unions, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and the California Association of Highway Patrolmen, retained membership rates of above 99%.

This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 5:00 AM.