I've had my eye on Janus v. AFSCME for 6 months. The case started in Illinois, where I lived for 25 years. Fiscally speaking, Illinois is hanging by a thread, and unfunded pensions are a big part of why.

Unions today don't check the power of business. With only 7% of private-sector employees in unions, they aren't a big force in business anymore; not so in the public sector, where 36% of the US workforce is unionized. You'd be forgiven for thinking that the 5x-sized private workforce has more union members than the public, but that's not correct: membership stands at 7.6 million in the US public sector vs. 7.1 private-sector. So this whole issue isn't capital vs. labor, or the Koch Brothers trying to "screw the working man"; it's about making sure politicians aren't in the pocket of the police department, or rolling over when it's time to get tough with parks and rec.