Previously, I wrote to address the practical effects of the newly adopted Michigan Civil Service Commission rules, as well as unions’ failed attempt to challenge those rules. Now that the rules are effective, we can examine their impact.

Data from the commission shows that approximately 13% of unionized civil service employees chose not to reauthorize dues payments to their unions. Put another way, this means that 4346 of nearly 34,000 employees decided to not continue to support their union’s representational and political activities. This represents an annual loss to unions of approximately $2,824,900 per year.

Perhaps it is no surprise that these losses prompted the unions to launch an ill-fated attempt to prevent the rules from taking effect. Though they lost, workers won. Former union members now have the ability to make a fully informed choice as to whether to support their union, after carefully considering their rights. In addition, members and nonmembers alike now have the opportunity to reevaluate their choice annually, which will help to hold underperforming unions accountable while rewarding those unions that actually support their members’ interests.

Equally interesting is the precipitous decline in membership that unions have seen since Michigan passed its right-to-work law in 2012. Currently, 33,441 state workers are covered by union collective bargaining agreements, while 22,506 of those employees are union members. Before right-to-work, all of these workers were subject to mandatory dues or agency fee payments. Now, thanks to the combination of right-to-work and the recent civil service rules, approximately 33% of the state’s represented employees have been freed from having to support their union against their will.

Thanks to Michigan’s increasingly pro-worker policies, 10,935 state employees now have more freedom than ever before. And while unions may lament the loss of approximately $7,107,750 annually, such losses represent money that now remains in the pockets of workers who do not support their union’s radical political agenda.

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