Those are agency fees, not union dues. Quoting from the link you gave, &quot;This fee costs the same as union dues, minus the cost of the union’s direct political giving&quot;.<p>Edit: Downvotes for making a minor vocabulary correction? Imagine what would happen if I had pointed out that tomato is botanically a fruit, even if it is the state vegetable of New Jersey. (And yes, this topic made it to the Supreme Court in Nix v. Hedden.)