SACRAMENTO, Calif.—With the Supreme Court likely to eliminate fair-share fees for public-sector unions next year—in Janus v.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees—California’s unions are preparing to absorb the blow. “I think it’s going to hurt, but it need not be the end of the world,” Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers, told Capital and Main. “Frankly, we’re going to have to do the kind of organizing that we should have been doing all these many years. I think the labor movement got a little bit complacent.” California may be different from other states, as its unions are concentrated in the service sector, such as hospital and government workers and the entertainment industry. “A number of our unions and our affiliates are using this as a time to go back to basics,” said Angie Wei, chief of staff at the California Labor Federation. “Which is one-on-one conversations, member-to-member, at the worksites. And building a permanent structure for the union… building power from the ground up.”
