Anyone who wants to understand why unions are losing membership and public sympathy need only look at the 2018-19 internal budget of the AFL-CIO. It lists more than $40 million in planned spending for “political, electoral and issue mobilization,” which is more than eight times as much as the $5 million allocated for actual union organizing.

Union members probably do not approve, and when word of this budget gets out, neither may the general public. It seems reasonable that when unions stand, without violence, for reasonable worker compensation and working conditions, the public will be more sympathetic than it will if unions are seen as just another partisan, political rent seeker. And it makes sense that when workers see their dues used for politicking that they may not even agree with, they might not want to join or remain members of a union.