Public-Sector Unions Brace for Fallout From Supreme Court Decision on Fees

Mark Janus, who is represented by attorneys at the Liberty Justice Center and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, said bargaining with public agencies is inherently political and a mandatory $45-a-month fee paid to the union violated his First Amendment rights.

Though Wednesday’s ruling will have no direct impact on private-sector unions, it could accelerate a trend across the country toward nonunionized workplaces. About a third of public employees are union members, but just about 6.5% of private sector workers belong to a union.

Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union with nearly 3 million members, called the decision “a blatant slap in the face for educators, nurses, firefighters, police officers and all public servants.”

In anticipation of the ruling, the union had cut its budget by $50 million and said it fears losing agency fees from 90,000 members. The nation’s other primary teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, estimated in an internal memo earlier this year that it could lose 20% or more of its total funding.

Union officials said they expected state agencies to stop collecting agency fees from unions immediately, but it was unclear how quickly the process would take place across states, and whether state laws could complicate the process.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner

said in an interview that he expected the state to stop collecting agency fees soon. He said state officials were studying how to implement the Court’s ruling but that it is possible all government workers in the state could eventually be given an opportunity to choose whether they want to be in a union or not.

“It’s a great day for worker and a great day for taxpayers,” said the Republican governor, who launched the case that made it to the Supreme Court when he sued the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in 2015. “Now you’re either in the union and pay all the dues or you’re not and you don’t pay any.”

Conservative groups kicked off campaigns on Wednesday that have been months in the making to inform union members via direct mail and advertising and websites, including one called “MyPayMySay”, that they can now opt out of paying dues.

The conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan said it would spend $10 million during the rest of the year on efforts that include a national call center in Washington, D.C., that went live Wednesday.

Lindsay Killen, the group’s vice president of strategic outreach, said the group expects to field 40,000 to 60,000 calls from public employees in coming months, based on a campaign the Mackinac Center ran in Michigan after the state passed right-to-work in 2012. Over a three-year campaign, more than 100,000 public employees stopped paying dues, including 25,000 at the Michigan Education Association, she said.

“Our efforts will be hyper-focused on the 11 states with the highest number of public employees,” she said. “Workers are going to need to understand the impact of that ruling.”

The Freedom Foundation is sending direct mail to more than 150,000 public-sector union members in Washington state on Wednesday, telling them how they can stop paying union fees. The Olympia, Wash., based group also sent several dozen canvassers to talk to workers at state and county offices and hand them pamphlets.

“We have folks all over the state,” said Maxford Nelsen, director of labor policy. He said the group eventually hopes to reach every public employee in Oregon and California as well.

Unions have remained stalwart backers of Democratic politicians, even as many of their white, working-class members gravitated in the last election to the populist message of President

Donald Trump.

During the 2016 election, labor unions overall spent an unprecedented $217 million to elect primarily Democrats, a 59% increase over their spending in 2012, according to the center for Responsive Politics.

The left-leaning Illinois Economic Policy Institute estimated in a May report that a ruling in favor of Mr. Janus could result in the loss of 726,000 union members over several years.

Bracing for the worst, most public-sector unions launched campaigns last fall to canvass members in case of an unfavorable decision, holding rallies, knocking on doors and in several cases asking members to sign legally-binding recommitment cards.

Though a majority of union members live in liberal states—45% reside in New York and California—several swing states including Ohio and Pennsylvania also permitted the use of agency fees, making them top targets for conservative groups looking to defang politically potent unions in those states.

Despite the looming threat from the supreme court, teachers unions in particular saw a surge in activity this year as educators across six states participated in statewide walkouts to protest low pay and poor classroom conditions. Union leaders on Wednesday pointed to the walkouts—which sprung up organically, rather than through union organizing—as a sign that employees still value the power of collective bargaining. The union heads also hope that, following the successes of those movements earlier this year, more employees will see the value of remaining members.

“What we saw is that when we stand together the public actually stands with us,” Ms. Eskelsen García said.

The Court’s decision will likely curtail unions’ ability going forward to persuade their members to vote as unions want them to. Unions typically use their dues-funded coffers to pay for costs such as polling fees, fees related to political protests, and paying teams of political hands to contact members and educate them about election issues to try to make sure they vote for union-endorsed candidates.

Agency-fee payers will likely be permitted to stop paying immediately, though the question of whether full members can halt payment is a little murkier. Public-sector workers who have agreed to full membership may be required to continue paying dues through the end of their union contracts, and could be impacted by a patchwork of state laws.

In its decision, the court said public-sector workers must actively consent to being union members, rather than opting out of paying dues. That might prompt conservative groups to claim that unions must re-sign all existing members, said Craig Becker, general counsel at the AFL-CIO.

“Arguments like that might be made, but people who have joined have already done so voluntarily,” he said. “There shouldn’t be any requirements to re-sign members.”

The ruling is also expected to resolve a number of similar lawsuits as it filters down to other states.

In Pennsylvania, four public school teachers sued the state affiliate of the National Education Association in federal court in Harrisburg in early 2017. The teachers similarly argued that they shouldn’t be required to pay fees to the union.

“It’s a total game-changer for our clients and public workers across the country,” said David Osborne, an attorney representing the teachers.

Write to Michelle Hackman at Michelle.Hackman@wsj.com and Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com