ALBANY — New York will soon stop collecting union fees from 31,000 state workers as national conservative groups begin their push to get more public employees to leave their unions.
State employees who do not belong to a union will no longer have "agency shop fees" deducted from their paychecks beginning July 11 for administrators and July 19 for rank-and-file workers, according to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office.
Shop fees are previously mandatory payments from non-union members to cover their collective-bargaining costs borne by the union.
The announcement from DiNapoli's office was in response to the Supreme Court's recent Janus decision, which prevents state and local governments from making such fees mandatory for those who opt out of their union.
The 31,000 employees represent a small portion of the state's payroll, which stands at about 255,000 workers. It does not include teachers and local-government workers.
Anti-union efforts
But the move comes as national groups are launching efforts to encourage more of New York's public workers to leave their unions.
That includes Americans for Fair Treatment, an Oklahoma-based anti-union organization that launched a New York-specific effort Thursday.
The group, led by a three-member board with ties to major conservative donors Charles and David Koch, launched a state-level organization called New Choice NY along with a website with an online form letter allowing employees to quickly opt out of their union.
"We believe New York’s public employees, armed with straight facts, are smart enough to make a good decision for themselves and their families. Let’s give them all the facts and let the workers choose,” Bob Bellafiore, a spokesman for the New York group, said in a statement.
Unions push back
The state's major public labor unions, meanwhile, have been ready for a battle.
The New York State United Teachers union, for example, has pushed back against emails from the Mackinac Center, a Michigan-based organization with ties to U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, encouraging teachers to leave their local unions.
Andy Pallotta, NYSUT president, said the union had been preparing for the Janus decision for years.
He said the union had already launched a drive to reconnect with its members in anticipation of the decision.
"Part of our campaign has been to get to our members before our opponents do to make sure that when there's a drop campaign ... that we're there first to say, 'This is what a union does for you. This is why it's good to be part of a collective-bargaining group,'" Pallotta told reporters last week.