Michigan became the first state in decades to repeal its right-to-work law by legislative action, which took effect Feb. 13. With the repeal in place, anyone who works at a company with a union contract, at least in the private sector, must join or pay fees to a labor union or be fired. The repeal comes at a time when union membership numbers are the lowest ever officially recorded.

Over the past decade, the number of employees in Michigan has risen by 500,000, going from 3.9 million to 4.4 million. Yet, total membership in Michigan labor unions has declined by nearly 70,000, dropping from 631,000 to 564,000.

The percentage of workers who are in a public or private sector union has collapsed. Almost 60% of government employees (a total of 350,000 people) used to be union members. Today, about 180,000 (or 39%) choose to remain. Public sector workers, unlike their counterparts in the private sector, are still free to leave their union under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME.

The repeal of Michigan’s right-to-work law came after a concerted effort – a gasp – from organized labor to exercise the power to compel hundreds of thousands of people to pay dues against their will. Repealing the law was an unfortunate signal to Michigan’s workers, to the nation and even to foreign businesses that the state is less interested in worker rights and a competitive labor market.

But compulsion is not a viable strategy. The business model is on shaky ground. And that’s what the numbers about union membership tell us about the modern labor movement.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited.