While lawmakers debate the issue on Capitol Hill, some states already have curtailed unions' abilities to assess political dues. In 1992, Washington state voters passed an initiative that required an employee's written consent before wages could be withheld for political purposes. Prior to the 1992 initiative, if union members did not want any part of their automatic salary deductions to go for promotion of political causes or candidates, they had to request a refund. When the new law took effect, the number of union members contributing to the union's political action committee dropped from 48,000 to 8,000 out of a total union membership of 65,000. What WEA did next is now the subject of a suit filed by the state attorney general's office.
Unions show no sign of retreating from their aggressive political platform.