Union Interests Under AttackIn Statehouses

By Joanna Richardson

Beginning this summer, the Indiana State Teachers' Association will no longer have the ability to bargain with school districts for the right to collect fees from nonunion members.

The "fair share" clauses that allow the teachers' union to charge nonmembers put about half a million dollars into its coffers each year. The fees are only a small part of a $13 million budget, but the union has fought to preserve them many times in court.

Indiana's G.O.P.-controlled legislature thought it was time to end the practice, however. Last month, lawmakers overturned a veto by Gov. Evan Bayh, a Democrat, and enacted the measure...