Members of the behemoth known as Service Employees International Union Local 1000 in California aren’t happy about having their dues and fees schedule jacked to Kingdom Come by union officials. Now some people who pay an unfair share fee — people who are forced to pay for union “services” even though they don’t want to be union members — are fighting back and trying to escape. And it could cost the union big time:

With unit members paying an average of $75 a month in dues, according to Hard, and fair-share employees paying a couple dollars less, SEIU 1000 stands to lose about $12.5 million a year if the rescission campaign succeeds and it carries over into the next contract. That amounts to about 29 percent of the $44 million in revenue the union declared last year.

The fight over the fair-share payers comes at a time when petitions are circulating on a ballot measure that would reduce pensions on state employees hired after July 2009. Meanwhile, the union’s contract with the state expires next year, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget writers already projecting an $8.6 billion operating deficit.

When it comes down to it, the problem is summed up by the guy leading the charge against SEIU’s union bosses: “There is no mechanism within the union for members or nonmembers to take that has an effective impact on the union.”