Why Some Unions Are Losing Members, and Revenue
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What quick market and housing updates should listeners know before the interview?
Here's your Money Briefing for Friday, November 22nd. I'm J.R. Whalen at The Wall Street Journal in New York. Unions are having a hard time holding on to members and their monthly dues in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling last year. We'll have more on that in a moment. First, some money and market news you should know. Existing home sales rose about 2% in October as compared to the previous month, fueled by 30-year mortgage rates hovering around 3.75% and a lack of supply. The median sale price for an existing home was about $271,000, up 6% from the same time last year and the strongest rate of increase since June of 2017. The National Association of Realtors says that homes in the $500,000 to $750,000 range saw the strongest sales gains, but sales of homes priced below $250,000 declined year over year.
And if you're getting ready for Thanksgiving shopping, your Thanksgiving turkey won't gobble up as much of your food budget this year. The American Farm Bureau Federation says a 16-pound turkey averages $20.80. That's almost a dollar less than last year. Here's why. Advancements in housing and genetics mean it takes less time and less feed to raise a turkey. Well, a 14-ounce box of cubed stuffing cost 19 cents less this year, and pumpkin pie mix is virtually unchanged. But some staples have gone up. The average prices of a gallon of whole milk, one pound of green beans, and three pounds of sweet potatoes are all higher this year. Now, all told, the American Farm Bureau Federation says the cost of Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings for 10 people comes in at $48.91, just under $5 a person.
It's up just a penny over last year.
A year after the Supreme Court loosened the rules governing unions, those groups are seeing steep drops in memberships and revenue. Wall Street Journal reporter Chris Marr is on the line with us to discuss. So, Chris, the Supreme Court decision affected public worker unions. What specific changes to the unions did the court's decision put into place?
So the Janus ruling, as it's called, by the Supreme Court in June of 2018, essentially banned provisions and union contracts that required government workers to either join a union or pay agency fees if that workplace was union represented. So after the ruling, workers in these states have gotten the option to basically opt out. They don't have to pay agency fees or be members of the union.
And the court's decision then instituted right-to-work rules.
for public sector workers in about two dozen states that didn't already have such laws. So again, it gives workers the opportunity to opt out of paying dues or fees to the union. In those workplaces, the workers are still going to be represented by the union, so the union is still going to bargain contracts for them, potentially represent them in grievances and other issues that come up, but the workers themselves don't have to pay money to the unions.
And it probably doesn't sit well with the rank and file members who are still paying dues.
That's right. This is one of the biggest sore points for unions around this issue. So basically, from the union's perspective, these workers would be called free riders or, you know, they're basically getting the services from the union. They're getting representation, bargaining for contracts and everything, but they're not contributing to the unions themselves. I think it can create tensions in some workplaces where you have these workers opting out and not paying dues, and then other people paying dues for the union that they probably support much more than the other workers. A lot of times what's at the bottom of this is often a political difference of opinion. So some of the workers don't want to be part of the union or pay money to the union because they don't like how the union is spending money.
their money, you know, political issues or other other things.
And several people you spoke with feel they could make smarter moves with money that they would ordinarily pay to unions as dues.
There's a variety of reasons for why people might want to opt out of the union.
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