Labor Day 2019

Scott Walker’s 2011 legislation to gut public-employee unions there has had a far greater effect on labor rolls than many people realize. Largely because of that anti-union law, union membership in Wisconsin has fallen at a faster rate over the past decade than in any other state, plunging by 44 percent, or 177,000 workers, since 2008. Between 2008 and 2018, union membership there dropped by 19 percent, or 146,000 workers, to 625,000. Trump won Michigan by just 10,704 votes. Pennsylvania’s unions have lost 182,000 members since 2008, falling by 21 percent to 665,000; Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,292 votes.Walker’s anti-union law, known as Act 10, 135,000 government workers in Wisconsin stopped paying union dues. He said this had cut union revenue by an estimated $135 million a year.Steven Greenhouse