UNIONS OWE CAREGIVERS MILLIONS [4] WITHE T O LE AD NATIONAL E XPANSION [4] L&I OFFICE DUE FOR A FIRS T AMENDMENT LESSON [9]
LIVINGLIBERTY A PUBLICATION OF THE FREEDOM FOUNDATION | NOVEMBER 2019
the
Best AG Union Money Can Buy FERGUSON FILES YET ANOTHER UNION-ORDERED SUIT ALLEGING PDC VIOLATIONS
Electronic Service Requested
Freedom Foundation PO Box 552 Olympia, WA 98507
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ashington Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Oct. 8 demonstrated once again his loyalties are with the puppetmaster government employee unions who make his mouth move rather than the voters who elect him to office. For the third time, Ferguson — known as “Sideshow Bob” by those who’ve watched his antics for years — has filed a lawsuit against the Freedom Foundation alleging it failed to disclose non-monetary, in-kind contributions made to a political campaign. This time, the action claims the Freedom Foundation was required by the state’s public disclosure laws to file paperwork explaining informational work its employees did to warn the public about Initiative 1, a 2016 ballot measure in the city of Olympia that proposed an income tax of 1.5 percent on households with incomes of $200,000 or greater, with the proceeds ostensibly earmarked to fund college tuition for city residents. Initiative 1 ultimately failed at the ballot box, but was strongly supported by public-sector unions, who know more tax revenue means bigger government — and, by extension, more dues-paying members. For its part, the Freedom Foundation doesn’t dispute that it: n published a staff-member-authored guest opinion in The Olympian explaining at length how the tax spelled out in Initiative 1
By JEFF RHODES Managing Editor was just as unconstitutional as every other soak-the-rich scheme dreamed up by the Left because it treats taxpayers differently based on their earning power; n allowed a staff member to testify before the Olympia City Council making the same constitutional argument; n discussed the merits of the tax on a weekly radio show produced by the Freedom Foundation’s in those days; and, n submitted an amicus brief authored by Freedom Foundation attorneys in a lawsuit filed by the city against a group of activists attempting to scuttle the initiative. None of these actions, however, involved raising money, donating money or directly telling city residents how to vote. “As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, the Freedom Foundation can’t electioneer, but it can educate,” said Freedom Foundation CEO Tom McCabe. “Forming a corporation doesn’t mean you’ve waived your First Amendment rights to free speech. Heaven knows Bob Ferguson’s union friends are free enough with their opinions.” More to the point, Ferguson — who has banked more than $350,000 since 2000 in campaign contributions skimmed from the paychecks of public employees — has shown little interest in pursuing far more egregious campaign finance violations committed by his union cohorts. In the past five years alone, the Freedom Foundation has filed more than 20 PDC complaints against labor unions and their associated front groups attempting to conceal tens of millions of dollars in campaign activity from both the public and their own members. And on at least a dozen occasions the unions have either been found guilty or been forced into a settlement agreement. See AG LAWSUIT Page 4
VOLUME 30 | ISSUE 10
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Publisher: Tom McCabe Editor: Jeff Rhodes
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A PUBLI CAT I ON OF T HE FREED OM FOU NDATION
CONTENTS PAGE 3 LEADERSHIP MEMO By TOM McCABE If Bob Ferguson Didn’t Have a Double Standard, He’d Have No Standards at All.
PAGE 4
THE CASE FOR FREEDOM By STAFF REPORTS
By MAXFORD NELSEN Unions Owe States Millions in Illegally Taken Dues.
Withe Named to Head Freedom Foundation National Expansion Efforts.
PAGE 5
What They Said & What They Meant
LITIGATING FREEDOM By ROBERT BOUVATTE Freedom Foundation Files Lawsuit Over Canvassers’ Access to L&I Building.
PAGES 6-7
The
R E C R O F EN
President Trump Names the Freedom Foundation’s Max Nelsen to a Prestigious Dispute Resolution Panel, and Suddenly He’s Organized Labor’s Public Enemy No. 1.
PAGE 8
OREGON UPDATE
By MIKE NEARMAN Unions Vowing to Punish Backers of PERS Reform. By BOAZ DILLON OSEA Membership Decline Among the Nation’s Largest.
PAGE 10
PAGE 9 “I respect the state workers and I respect their unions, but we simply can’t afford to pay benefits and pensions that are out of line with economic reality.”
By ASHLEY VARNER
Reprinted from the WASHINGTON EXAMINER
By MATTHEW HAYWARD Washington’s L&I Office due for a First Amendment lesson.
ANDREW CUOMO
Government Unions Keep Losing Members - And They’re Not Happy About It. Freedom Foundation’s Friends, Foes Weigh in On Our Actions.
New York governor
Nothing in this publication should be construed as an attempt to aid or hinder the election of any elected official or candidate.
FREEDOM IN ACTION
BEST OF THE BLOG
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FREEDOM IN THE NEWS
By ASHLEY VNER
Reprinted from THE OLYMPIAN
Emails of Unionizing UW Professors Must Be Disclosed.
PAGE 12
ACTION TIMELINE
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A PUBLI CATION OF THE FREED OM FOU NDATION
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MEMO
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ccording to Associated Press style, when writing about a political office holder elected to represent a specific district or community, the person’s name must be listed first, followed in parenthesis by a letter designating his or her party, then a dash, and finally the abbreviation (if necessary) for their constituency. For example, if you were writing about a member of Congress, you would refer to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) or Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) It’s the same with members of the state Legislature, such as Washington State Sen. Andy Billig (D-Spokane) or Rep. J.T. Wilcox (R-Yelm). But in the case of Washington’s sitting attorney general, I submit the most fitting title is Bob Ferguson (D-SEIU). After all, the Service Employees International Union — among other labor organizations — bought and paid for his office, and almost from the day he assumed it, Ferguson has made boot-licking allegiance to its leaders and callous indifference to everyone else his modus operandi. As the most outspoken and effective adversary of SEIU and all the other unions running a Mafia-like protection racket to skim dues from thousands of state and local workers, the Freedom Foundation has often found itself on the receiving end of Ferguson’s union-ordered wrath. Just last week, Sideshow Bob — no doubt after taking a phone call from his controllers in organized labor — filed his third separate lawsuit alleging the Freedom Foundation of campaign finance violations. In this instance, he insists actions taken three years ago in opposition to a local income tax ballot measure ultimately rejected by voters in the city of Olympia amounted to an “inkind” political contribution and needed to be reported as such. The lawsuit cites a guest opinion published in a local newspaper arguing such a tax was a violation of the state’s constitution. A Freedom Foundation staff member also testified before the Olympia City Council and our attorneys filed an amicus brief — both making the same constitutional arguments. In none of these cases did the Freedom Foundation collect money, donate money, urge Olympia residents to vote against the measure or do any of those things normally associated with an organized political campaign. We simply exercised our First Amendment rights to express an opinion. Why else would policy organizations like ours exist if not to advocate for the principles we believe in? Since its founding in 1991, the Freedom Foundation has stood squarely for free markets and limited, accountable government. Our positions never endeared us to Washington’s public-sector unions, but hostilities escalated for real when I came on board here in late 2013 and made unions — the most persistent obstacle to those larger goals — the Freedom Foundation’s only objective. We’re not a governmental agency and we don’t have the power to impose our views on anyone. Because our mission is purely educational, our authority derives from the facts we’re
able to marshal in defense of those ideals. With respect to By TOM McCABE, CEO unions, our mission is to inform government employees about a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that recognized the unconstitutionality of mandatory union membership or dues in the public workplace. As the state’s highest ranking law enforcement officer, Bob Ferguson swore an oath to uphold the same principles, but in practice he’s chosen to ignore the Constitution and serve only those who can feed his lust for power. Ferguson yearns to be governor of Washington, and to the extent SEIU or any union can help with money or votes, there’s no rule he won’t bend to get what both want. Frivolous though they may be, make no mistake: It’s no joke to be the subject of a Bob Ferguson politically motivated lawsuit. And it doesn’t get any easier the third time. He has at his disposal an almost unlimited budget of taxpayer dollars and a staff of 600 paid attorneys, many of whom share his almost religious zeal for making life miserable for his adversaries — and those of his controllers in organized labor. Ferguson’s goal is to silence the Freedom Foundation by beating us into submission using the weapons available to him by virtue of his office. And he operates with no restraints. Who in government or media would dare challenge Ferguson whether they shared share his values or not? Even when he agrees to sue a union, it isn’t what it seems. By law, if Ferguson doesn’t take action in response to a PDC complaint filed by the Freedom Foundation, we can file suit on our own. And in doing so, we can be much more aggressive than he ever would. But even more importantly, giving us a crack at his union friends would negate Ferguson’s ability to negotiate a settlement under which the union gets off with a slap on the wrist. In at least a dozen recent cases, unions and their shadowy operatives were caught red-handed hiding millions of dollars worth of political activity only to have Ferguson let them off for pennies on the dollar. And he has the gall to refer to the Freedom Foundation as a “repeat offender” and demand penalties far exceeding even the few thousand dollars we’re wrongly accused of not reporting. Sideshow Bob long ago weaponized the public disclosure regulations, just as he’s abused every aspect of his office. But he’s met his match in the Freedom Foundation.
LEADERSHIP
IF BOB FERGUSON DIDN’T HAVE A DOUBLE STANDARD,
“
Sideshow Bob long ago weaponized the public disclosure regulations, just as he’s abused every aspect of his office. But he’s met his match in the Freedom Foundation.
”
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THE CASE FOR FREEDOM UNIONS OWE STATE’S CAREGIVERS MILLIONS IN ILLEGALLY TAKEN DUES
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uring October, Service Employees International Union Local 775 (SEIU 775) agreed to pay $3.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in federal court brought by individual provider home care aides (IPs) who had union dues deducted from their wages without their consent. Although it represents just a fraction of the money illegally seized from the wages of thousands of IPs, the settlement agreement in Routh v. SEIU 775 is one of the biggest losses yet for a union that has grown powerful because of legally questionable practices. IPs provide home-based care to Medicaid-eligible elderly clients and those with disabilities who need assistance with activities of daily living. The state pays IPs directly on clients’ behalf. After IPs were unionized in 2002, SEIU 775 and the state of Washington agreed to force IPs to pay union dues or fees as a condition of caring for Medicaid clients. The state deducted the union payments from IPs wages and forwarded the funds to SEIU 775. This practice continued until 2014, when it was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court as unconstitutional in Harris v. Quinn. Following the decision, the union and Gov. Jay Inslee’s administration agreed to a scheme to continue seizing dues from the wages IPs who had never authorized the deductions. To cancel the automatic deductions, an IP had to send a written cancellation to the union. In a 2015 Freedom Foundation video, one of the Routh plaintiffs, Mary Jane Olson,
AG LAWSUIT Continued from page 1
But while Ferguson makes a point of throwing the book at the Freedom Foundation, he’s perfectly willing to sign off on settlement deals with his union cronies for pennies on the dollar.
To cite just one recent case, the Freedom Foundation filed a PDC complaint against AFSCME’s Special Account when it was discovered the group failed to disclose three expenditures it made in Washington elections totaling $250,000. While the recipient of two of the contributions reported receiving the funds, the third $200,000 contribution was not reported, making it completely invisible to the public. The Special Account also failed to disclose $82,000 in contributions it received. In fact, it neglected to report receipt of any contributions to the PDC. Caught red-handed hiding more than a quarter of a million dollars, PDC subsequently accepted a deal brokered by Ferguson’s office allowing AFSCME to pay a penalty of $5,250 — with $2,000 suspended pending “good behavior.” “Under Bob Ferguson, the Washington State Attorney General’s Office has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the state’s government employee unions,” McCabe said. “He abuses every facet of his office, using it to reward his friends and punish their perceived enemies. “ ‘Sideshow Bob’ defines corruption in Washington state,” he said. McCabe vowed the Freedom Foundation would fight this latest suit to the Supreme Court if necessary. “We’re not like most organizations,” he said. “We don’t just roll over and play dead when the unions resort to their bully tactics. We never have, and we never will.”
described her reaction to the unauthorized deductions: “When I received my first paycheck from DSHS, I was shocked to see that union dues were being withheld from my paycheck, because I knew I had not signed authorizing them to deduct any payment to SEIU at all.” The Freedom Foundation challenged this exploitative practice in the state Legislature and in state courts, but union-aligned state officials refused to halt the unauthorized deductions. Accordingly, the Freedom Foundation asked the U.S. Supreme Court to find it unconstitutional for government employers to collect union dues from employees’ wages without permission. In its June 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME, the Supreme Court held that government employers cannot deduct union dues/fees from an employee’s wages “unless the employee affirmatively consents to pay.” Immediately following the decision, the Freedom Foundation filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against SEIU 775 and Gov. Inslee on behalf of IPs who had dues taken from their wages without their permission. The state and union ended the practice in August 2018. This week’s settlement in Routh resulted from a lawsuit originally filed by a group of IPs in February 2014. The IPs were represented by two private law firms, Gorden Tilden Thomas & Cordell LLP and Carson & Noel PLLC. The IPs represented by the Freedom Foundation in Schumacher v. Inslee have
MAXFORD NELSEN, Labor Policy Director
the option of accepting the terms of the class settlement negotiated in Routh or opting out of the class and continuing to pursue their own litigation against SEIU 775 with the Foundation. While the settlement is good news, the thousands of IPs victimized by SEIU 775 and union-aligned state officials will recover far less than the total amount taken from them illegally. The Freedom Foundation estimates that, between the Harris decision in June 2014 and the end of the automatic deductions in August 2018, SEIU 775 collected $11 to 15 million from IPs without their consent. After legal fees and other costs, IPs will receive only $2.3 million under the settlement. Unfortunately, many other illegal practices concocted by SEIU 775 and Gov. Inslee’s administration continue. The Freedom Foundation has ongoing litigation against SEIU 775 on behalf of IPs who have been illegally signed up for union membership over the phone and who have had their signatures forged on union membership forms by union organizers. The very practice of having the state skim Medicaid funds from IPs’ wages on SEIU 775’s behalf under any circumstances runs afoul of federal Medicaid laws and is the subject of ongoing litigation. Nonetheless, the settlement is a long-overdue vindication of caregivers’ rights and is one of many steps necessary to hold SEIU 775 accountable for its illegal and unacceptable practices.
WITHE NAMED TO LEAD FREEDOM FOUNDATION EXPANSION EFFORTS Staff Reports
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he Freedom Foundation has announced plans to share its message of worker rights with an even wider audience and named a point man to lead the effort. Aaron Withe, formerly director of the group’s operations in Oregon, has been appointed national director and will coordinate the opening of branch offices in other states. The Freedom Foundation was founded in Washington state in 1991 as a traditional think tank promoting the ideals of free markets and limited, accountable government. In 2014, however, new CEO Tom McCabe focused the organization’s resources entirely on the chief impediment to those values — public-sector unions and their grip on the governing process. By 2015, the Freedom Foundation had opened a branch office in Oregon office and, two years later, moved into California. As a direct result of the Freedom Foundation’s work, more than 60,000 public employees have opted out of their union in just the past 18 months. Withe started with the Freedom Foundation in 2015 as an Oregon canvasser, visiting government employees
in their homes and offices to educate them about their First Amendment rights to opt out of union participation. Within a year he was in charge of the entire outreach program in the state and, in 2017, was named Oregon director. Under Withe’s leadership, SEIU 503 — Oregon’s largest public employee union — has seen its membership shrink by more than 25 percent. Likewise, the Oregon School Employees Association has lost a whopping 36 percent of its dues-payers, among the largest declines in the nation. Withe also serves on the Oregon Advisory Committee on the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights and earlier this year earned the Taxpayer Association of Oregon’s annual Thomas Jefferson Award for advancing the ideals of individual liberty and limited government. “There are hundreds of thousands of public employees around the country who have no idea of their newly affirmed rights under Janus v. AFSCME,” Withe said. “It takes the Freedom Foundation’s singularly focused program to inform all of these workers and assist them in actually getting out of dues that they often never consented to.” “The Freedom Foundation has a model for fighting the unions and winning,” Withe said. “It’s worked so well on the west coast that we’re being asked to export it to other states. That’s bad news for the unions, but great news for workers.”
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LITIGATING FREEDOM
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What They
&
What They What she said: “(I) was disgusted to find a billboard in Hillsboro encouraging teachers to “opt out” of their union....this BS needs to be removed!”
FREEDOM FOUNDATION FILES SUIT OVER CANVASSERS’ ACCESS TO L&I BUILDING
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une 27, already the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, might one day also be remembered in the annals of organized labor as the date on which Washington bureaucrats blundered their way into another costly lawsuit for trying to prevent public employees from learning about their newly affirmed rights under Janus. The Freedom Foundation, an Olympia-based free-market public policy advocate, on Oct. 2 filed a federal lawsuit with the U.S. Western District Court in Tacoma against the state’s Department of Labor and Industries and its assistant director of human resources, Heather Normoyle. The complaint alleges the agency denied Freedom Foundation canvassers the same access to the public areas of its headquarters building (located in Tumwater, Wash.) that is routinely granted to other organizations — including labor unions. The Freedom Foundation’s forte is informing government employees about the Janus ruling, which prohibited mandatory union membership or dues in the public workplace. In pursuit of that mission, one of its canvassing teams paid a visit to the L&I headquarters building on the one-year anniversary of the court’s June 27, 2018, decision. They informed the building’s receptionist they intended to hand out informational materials explaining that, under Janus, forcing workers to join — or pay dues to — a labor union is a violation of their First Amendment rights to free speech and association, and she granted them permission to proceed. After about 40 minutes, however, Ms. Normoyle arrived with several Washington State Patrol troopers and ordered the visitors to leave. One of the troopers also allegedly demanded the Freedom Foundation staffers stop documenting the action with photographs. Normoyle said the decision to deny the Freedom Foundation access was based on departmental policy requiring prior approval. When asked to produce a written copy of the rule, she agreed to send it by email — which she did later that day. But on its face, the policy does not prohibit anyone — not even the Freedom Foundation — from leafletting or speaking in the areas where the canvassers were located. “Even if the agency had a written policy covering this, it can’t be worded or interpreted so narrowly that it allows one group access to the
By ROBERT BOUVATTE, Litigation Counsel
building’s public spaces but denies another,” said Maxford Nelsen, the organization’s director of labor policy and one of those expelled from the department’s building. “Obviously the union representing L&I employees is pressuring the agency to deny the Freedom Foundation’s First Amendment right to share a message it doesn’t want its members to hear.” Nelsen said a group of LGBT activists had already set up a display in the same area when he and the Freedom Foundation canvassers arrived. It and other organizations — including labor unions — are routinely allowed to pass out literature and interact freely with L&I employees without even seeking, much less obtaining, a permit first. The Freedom Foundation seems to be the only organization excluded. As a result of this clear discrimination and violation of the Freedom Foundation’s fundamental rights, the lawsuit seeks: n a declaration from the state that the actions of L&I and Ms. Normoyle violated the Freedom Foundation’s First Amendment rights; n an injunction to ensure the agency will not try to deny the Freedom Foundation access to the workers in the future; and, n damages to be determined at court, in addition to court costs and attorney fees. “(T)he department’s and Ms. Normoyle’s reliance upon the policy is a mere pretext for intentional, viewpoint-based discrimination against the Freedom Foundation and its message, aimed at a critical time for the dissemination of that message (i.e., the anniversary of the Janus decision),” the Freedom Foundation’s lawsuit states. “At the very least, the department and Ms. Normoyle have not consistently enforced the policy against speakers in the past, including LGBT advocacy groups and/or speakers representing unions’ point of view.” Unfortunately, it is clear that for the Freedom Foundation to have the same rights to speak with public employees as other groups enjoy, the intervention of the courts will, again, be necessary.
What she meant: “What I actually LISA BAXTER Aloha, Ore. felt when I saw Facebook post, the Freedom Sept. 30, 2019 Foundation’s billboard was sheer terror. How can unions keep lining their pockets and funding extremist liberal candidates with other people’s money if someone starts telling the workers the truth about their Constitutional right to leave their union and no longer pay dues or fees? This has to be stopped.” n n n
He said: “So you’re fine with the Freedom Foundation’s ties to hate groups? Or are you just fine with them lying to union members and harassing them at their homes?” He meant: “It’s always easier to label your opponent ‘hate RICHARD COX groups’ Hoodsport, Wash. when you Facebook post, can’t make Aug. 20, 2019 a substantive argument — or back up your wild claims. For example, if the Freedom Foundation were really harrassing people in their homes, why hasn’t there been a single police report filed to that effect?” n n n
She said: “Laura Ingraham is a hate-filled spokesperson for Fox News. We don’t want her in Washington.” She meant: “Speaking of hate-filled, what else would you GAIL SWARTZ Seattle, Wash. call a person Facebook post who wants Sept. 15, 2019 to close off an entire state to someone who holds different views than they do — and is arrogant enough to think everyone else actually agrees with her?”
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TRUMP EMPOWERS UNION BUSTERS By MAX MORAN Reprinted from AltNet.com
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R E C R O F EN President Trump Names the Freedom’s Max Nelsen to a prestigious dispute resolution panel, and suddenly he’s organized labor’s Public Enemy No. 1
nyone praising the Ukraine whistleblowers for their courage, and fearful of the chilling effect of the Trump administration’s crackdown on whistleblowers, ought to support strong and independent public sector unions. Unions, after all, offer federal workers protection from the whims of the political appointees who are often their ultimate bosses. Yet President Donald Trump recently lifted a man whose whole career has centered on eviscerating public-sector unions to a position with direct power over them, and it was only reported in a single state blog. Last week, Trump appointed Maxford Nelsen to fill a seat on the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), a board housed within the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA). Most people have never heard of Nelsen, FSIP, or the FLRA. But if you work for the federal government, this decision could leave you with less job security and more working hours. Since the federal government is the largest employer in the American economy, that’s a lot of people who could suffer due to this decision. The FLRA is an independent agency that oversees the relationship between federal workers’ unions and their bosses — think of it as a neutral decisionmaker when unions and management need an external voice to make the final call on a given issue. Within the FLRA, the FSIP has jurisdiction over two key statutes: one which gave federal workers the right to collective organizing around personnel in the first place, and the other which set rules around schedules and hours for federal workers. When unions and management can’t reach an agreement over disputes around these two statutes, FSIP ends up having the final word. That’s important, since federal employees don’t have the right to strike, and there are often limitations on what a union can negotiate on within a given agency. An FSIP ruling is meant as an alternative to the usual way labor and management would close an unresolved dispute—namely, with talks breaking down, and the union perhaps going on strike. As a new member of the FSIP, Nelsen’s vote serves as a substitute to the direct leverage a strike would normally exert, meaning union members’ hopes may end up riding on the decisions of him and his fellow FSIP members. They will almost certainly be disappointed by every ruling he makes. Since 2013, Nelsen has directed the Freedom Foundation’s labor policy division. The Freedom Foundation is one of the hundreds of generically named conservative think tanks and advocacy groups in the State Policy Network, Charles Koch’s web of libertarian influence organizations. Public-sector unions are a particular bugaboo for the Freedom Foundation, whose CEO once wrote that “Labor bosses are the single greatest threat to freedom and opportunity in America today … The Freedom Foundation has a proven plan for bankrupting and defeating government unions
NELSEN APPOINTED TO SERVE ON FEDERAL SERVICE IMPASSES PANEL Staff Reports
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axford Nelsen, labor policy director for the Olympia, Wash.based Freedom Foundation, has been appointed by President Donald Trump to fill a seat on the Federal Service Impasses Panel, an independent entity within the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Members serve on a part-time basis and resolve impasses in contract negotiations between federal agencies and labor unions representing federal employees. Nelsen will serve a five-year term expiring Oct. 2, 2024, during which he will retain his existing full-time position with the Freedom Foundation, as is standard practice for panel members. “The president has a keen eye for talent,” said Freedom Foundation CEO Tom McCabe. “Max is a superstar in the field of public-sector labor relations. No one is better informed on these issues or better equipped temperamentally to issue fair, reasoned decisions. “We’re as proud as we can be of Max,” he said. Nelsen is the third Freedom Founda-
through education, litigation, legislation and community activation.” That “proven plan” was first developed in 2014, after the Supreme Court ruled that partially-public-sector workers—like homecare aides paid through Medicaid—were not required to pay dues to a union they had not joined, even if that union’s negotiations directly benefited them. The Freedom Foundation began public awareness campaigns to urge former dues-payers against contributing. Nelsen’s own work included investigating a South Seattle research center’s financial connections to major unions, and he ultimately called the center “little more than a state-subsidized extension of the WSLC.” Four years later, the Supreme Court expanded this dues-optional standard to all public-sector unions in the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME ruling. The Freedom Foundation filed an amicus brief for the Janus case which cited a report by Nelsen several times. Unsurprisingly, Nelsen is a vocal Janus fan, writing blog posts to call out perceived slights from Washington state lawmakers, giddily highlighting dropping union membership, and being ejected from government buildings for handing out leaflets about the decision. Now, from the board of the FSIP, he’ll have direct authority to make rulings that further weaken government unions’ capacity to credibly stand up to management. And importantly, he’ll be able to do this while still working at the Freedom Foundation to starve these unions of operating revenue. The FSIP is only a part-time commitment, and nothing prevents Nelsen from retaining his research job at the Freedom Foundation. Thus, he can pursue his anti-labor
tion staff member in two years to be tapped by the Trump administration. In 2017, Freedom Foundation attorney David Dewhirst was hired as deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and earlier this year Aaron Withe, the organization’s director of national operations, was appointed to the Oregon Advisory Committee on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. As director of labor policy for the Freedom Foundation, Nelsen leads the organization’s research, advises its strategic litigation program and advances its government affairs efforts. His research on labor and economic policy has formed the basis of several briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and his views have been published in local newspapers around the country as well as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, and the National Review. His commentary on labor policy issues has been featured in media outlets like the New York Times, Fox News, and the PBS News Hour.
agenda from both the outside and the inside, at the same time, completely legally. This is not what FSIP was designed for. It’s supposed to be a neutral arbiter between management and labor, not a tool for one side to exert dominance over the other. Which brings us to another key part of the story, namely, that it’s not a new story. Every single one of the FSIP’s members comes from a background indicating antagonism to organized labor. FSIP members are appointed for five-year terms, likely to protect against a president stuffing the board with loyalists and ensure some holdovers from administration to administration. But right now, there are no pro-labor members, or even just non-interested parties like academics, to offer any counter-weight to the pro-management bloc. Nelsen’s appointment, then, is sadly just more of the same. It’s more of the same for FSIP and the FLRA, and more of the same for the Trump administration. Undeniably, there is a lot going on in the news right now, more than almost anyone can follow. But if we let appointments like these and rulings from boards like FSIP slip completely under the radar, the consequences can ripple out and enable the culture of unchecked corruption among appointees that we see today. Max Moran is a research assistant at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
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UNION TO PUNISH BACKERS OF PERS REFORM
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uring this past legislative session, the Oregon State Legislature passed Senate Bill 1049, a measure designed to help begin to fix Oregon’s $27 billion unfunded pension liability. The bill, which received bi-partisan support, would require public employees to set aside a portion of their own salaries to fund the deficit. Government unions seethed. Both AFSCME Council 75, the state’s largest exclusive representative for local governments, and the Oregon AFL-CIO, the state’s federation of
By MIKE NEARMAN, Oregon Director
unions, have stated they will not endorse lawmakers who voted for the bill — including Democrats. Oregon AFSCME’s president stated there would be, “No interviews, no endorsement, no financial support” for any legislator who didn’t toe the line. Initially, the bill received only 29 “yes” votes in the House — two short
Oregon Update
Highlighting the successes being achieved by the Freedom Foundation’s office in the Beaver State.
of the simple majority needed to pass. While the rest of the House recessed, one by one Rep. Mitch Greenlick and Rep. Andrea Salinas were hauled into the back room where the speaker strongly encouraged them to rethink their votes. Not only has Greenlick been a strong union supporter in his almost two decades of service, but Salinas was a lobbyist for SEIU 503 prior to her appointment to the Legislature. It’s no secret these labor groups and many others nearly always endorse liberal politicians. In fact, it’s how both unions and leftist politicians have been able to accumulate so much clout in states like Oregon. Angry rumors of Democrat primaries persist. Or in AFSCME’s case, could this temper tantrum just be a cover? Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, Oregon’s AFSCME Council 75 has lost a considerable number of members. So many that the state office actually received more funds from the international union than it donated. This is almost unheard of for large government unions on the west coast. AFSCME could be using this bill as cover for plans to scale back its involvement in politics next election. Of course, the sustained revenue losses that resulted from members opting out in droves following Janus might have a little to do with it, too. This is just another example of unions losing their grip over the party in power and Oregon politics as a whole.
OSEA MEMBERSHIP DECLINE AMONG USA’S LARGEST
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ix months ago, the Freedom Foundation’s Oregon office expanded its focus to include actively outreaching to the Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA). Since that declaration, OSEA members across the state have received tens of thousands of mail pieces, emails, texts and in-person visits informing them of their newly affirmed rights to opt out of their union and cease paying union dues under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME. While talking out of both sides of his mouth, then-OSEA President Tim Stoelb couldn’t seem to agree with himself on the impact of the Janus decision or the effectiveness of the Freedom Foundation’s outreach efforts. Before Janus, Stoelb said in his 2017 “State of Our Union” speech, “What does [Janus] mean for us? I don’t think I have to go into too many details to convey my fears. It will be devastating.” In the year since it was issued, however, Stoelb has characterized the Freedom Foundation’s efforts to inform OSEA members of their newly affirmed rights as “fake news,” while almost in the same breath admitting the union has been forced to close three field offices, drastically cut back spending and accept a $400,000 handout from its parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers, just to make ends meet. Thankfully, the release of OSEA’s newest financial statement helps clear up any confusion that may still remain about the union’s financial
By JASON DUDASH, Assistant Oregon Director
wellness. The state filing shows that of the approximately 23,000 workers OSEA claims to represent, only 15,130 are dues-paying members. As a direct result of our outreach, OSEA has seen its membership decline by a whopping 36 percent since the Janus decision. The tax filing also shows that they collected nearly $1 million less in dues and membership fees. Fittingly, Executive Director Rick Shidaker saw his still-inflated salary slashed by $8,000. This all occurred in spite of OSEA’s militant efforts to suppress the Freedom Foundation’s activities. Members of the union’s leadership team responded to our outreach with mass emailing to their members attempting to defame and attribute false motives to our organization. OSEA’s very own state secretary, Mary Hofer, even went so far as to submit an op-ed to the Bend Bulletin that surprisingly was not meant to be interpreted as satirical, even though it cartoonishly impugned our motives and showcased her apparent distaste for billboards. Further, OSEA was the culprit behind what is the most anti-Janus piece of legislation to be introduced in the Oregon Legislature, House Bill 2643. The bill would have taken away employees’ rights to stop paying union dues. Instead, the state would have
automatically taken a portion of the employee’s salary that was equal to union dues and given it straight to the union. Luckily, the bill never even received a committee hearing. These actions did nothing but waste OSEA’s dwindling resources. The indisputable fact is that its offices are closing, its revenue is drying up and, most importantly, its members are leaving in droves. With so much on its plate, it’s reasonable to speculate about whether Stoelb’s departure as president was voluntary or if his superiors demanded he walk the plank before the ship sank entirely. Perhaps the only part of OSEA’s future that’s certain is that the Freedom Foundation will remain a big part of it. We will continue our mission to ensure all OSEA members, all public employees, are informed of their rights to free themselves of union bondage.
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BEST OF THE BLOG “SEIU is like a Las Vegas hooker in that they want to make you think they care about you, but really they just want your money.” TAMEN Freedom Foundation Canvasser n
WASHINGTON’S L&I OFFICE IS DUE FOR A LESSON ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT
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“I called to say thank you. I don’t know if you remember, but you helped me last week. I just got my check and the deduction is gone. If it hadn’t been for your organization, I wouldn’t have been the beneficiary of keeping my money. . .. I’m sure your recommendations and your letter being professionally made streamlined my effort to get the union to stop the deduction.” CHARLES
OCT. 11, 2019
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he Freedom Foundation has a long history of taking action to turn its ideas into results. But for those actions to be successful, we’ve learned that very often they must be defended in court. Last summer, for example, we came up with the idea of having Freedom Foundation canvassers visit government office buildings around the state on the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, which recognized the right of public employees to decline union membership and refuse to pay dues or fees. However, before doing so, we were careful to contact the public agencies involved to ask about policies and permits. In the case of the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, we carefully examined the applicable regulations, and it was apparent no permit was necessary to stand in the public areas of the taxpayer-supported building in which L&I employees work and exercise our First Amendment rights to inform those employees about their First Amendment rights. But the union representing these workers doesn’t want its members educated, and the state is all too happy to oblige. Because the union wields more influence than we do over the site, Washington State Patrol troopers were ordered by Labor & Industries bureaucrats to ignore the law and expel our canvassers (forgetting that the union had previously occupied the same public area without a permit just months before). The Freedom Foundation responded by filing a lawsuit in the U.S. Western District Court in Tacoma against L&I and its assistant director of human resources, Heather Normoyle, for refusing to allow the Freedom Foundation to engage in protected First Amendment activities. Aside from kicking the Freedom Foundation’s employees out of the building, state officials even prevented them from documenting these abuses of power with photographs. On that point, the complaint alleges: n “One of the Washington State Patrol officers, Officer B. Maupin, heard that employee’s camera snapping photographs and ordered the employee to stop taking pictures. n Not knowing what else to do, the
By MATTHEW HAYWARD, Outreach Director
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Freedom Foundation’s employee acceded to Officer Maupin’s order to cease taking pictures of the scene. n Shortly thereafter, however, Officer Maupin believed (incorrectly) that the Foundation’s employee had recommenced taking photographs and became incensed at same. n The officer invaded the employee’s personal space in a physically-intimidating manner, said “(S)eriously?” as if to question whether the employee was “seriously” disobeying his order, and reiterated his command by saying that, “You can’t just take pictures of people,” or words of similar effect. n At that point, one of the onlookers chimed in to say that, “Yes, you can (take photographs of public officials engaged in performing their duties).” L&I is not the only Washington State Agency to deny the Freedom Foundation’s constitutional right to interact with public employees in public places, nor are they the first (or likely the last) to be sued over similar behavior. Situations like this remind us: “In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything h is own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech; a thing terrible to public traitors.” – Benjamin Franklin Please stand with us and support our fight against union and government abuse of power. Because if we don’t do it, who will? With your help, we will continue fighting big government and union bosses that get in the way of our plans to inform public employees across the nation about their constitutional rights to opt-out of paying union dues. For more information, please contact Robert Bouvatte, our Litigation Counsel,
FAN MAIL As it tried to do in September prior to Laura Ingraham’s keynote address at the Freedom Foundation’s annual banquet at Bellevue’s Hyatt Regency, the unionbacked Northwest Accountability Project has launched a smear campaign against fellow Fox News personality Mike Huckabee hoping the Salem (Ore.) Convention Center will cancel his appearance at our Oregon banquet on Nov. 9. It won’t, of course, but NWAP’s flier — which its operatives slid under the door of the Freedom Foundation’s door like a thief in the night — will make first-rate birdcage liner.
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FREEDOM IN ACTION GOVERNMENT UNIONS KEEP LOSING MEMBERS, AND THEY’RE NOT HAPPY Reprinted from the WASHINGTON EXAMINER Oct. 3, 2019
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ast week, a mob of protesters descended on Washington, D.C., in the name of climate change. They carried signs and blocked some of the city’s busiest intersections to draw attention to their environmental demands — leaving in their wake, by the way, a mountain of water bottles, fastfood takeout bags, and other waste for National Park Service crews to clean up. So much for their commitment to Mother Earth. Meanwhile, a protest just as unserious, and every bit as instructive about the true aims of the political Left, was taking place on the country’s other coast, albeit to much less media fawning. Hundreds of angry demonstrators — many paid to attend and bused to the event by organized labor — staked themselves on the sidewalk in Bellevue, Washingotn, protesting the annual banquet of the Freedom Foundation, a right-of-center think tank with offices in Washington, Oregon, and California. Their beef? A pair of U.S. Supreme Court rulings had declared that it is unconstitutional and illegal to force government employees to financially support unions through member dues or fees. Government unions on the West Coast are hemorrhaging members as a result. And labor leaders blame the Freedom Foundation for helping govern-
ment employees learn about and execute their right to stop paying these unions, information the unions themselves would have shared if they saw their members as anything other than paychecks waiting to be plundered. In 2014, the unions’ grip on the paychecks of public employees first began to loosen when the Supreme Court ruled in Harris v. Quinn that publicly compensated child care and home care providers could not be forced to join a union or pay dues against their will. That decision set the stage for the court’s June 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME, which affirmed that forced dues (or their equally odious substitute, so-called agency fees) are a violation of the First Amendment rights of all government employees. Not surprisingly, both cases were a body blow to organized labor and its paid-for allies on the political Left. While union membership in the private sector has plummeted to record lows in recent years, the movement had been propped up by inflated numbers in the public sector, where government continues to grow uncontrolled and add thousands of new workers to the payroll every year. And until very recently, every single one was
By ASHLEY VARNER, VP for Communications
required in one way or another to support a designated union, even when that meant financing political candidates and causes that violated their core principles. The Center for Union Facts found that between 2010 and 2018, unions across the board gave well over $1 billion to Democrats and liberal groups who, in turn, passed legislation strengthening unions and insulating them from the laws the rest of us must follow. Is it any wonder hardworking Americans don’t want money taken from their paychecks to fund unions’ political hobby horses? Since the Janus ruling, public employees on the West Coast have been abandoning government unions in droves; the Freedom Foundation has directly helped 60,000 of these workers. This mass exodus has returned more than $50 million back into the pockets of those who actually earned it, while simultaneously denying unions the ability to finance their political agenda with someone else’s money. While the world watches the climate activists on the East Coast, know that the West Coast has its own battle, and the Left is losing. Labor leaders are terrified of the losses they are experiencing, because fewer union members mean fewer dollars in their coffers. Consequently, they are furious at the organizations and activists they blame for the change. But the real culprit is the one they see in the mirror every morning.
EMAILS OF UNIONIZING UW PROFS MUST BE DISCLOSED By JAMES DREW Reprinted from THE OLYMPIAN Sept. 6, 2019
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mlegal test on whether documents should be released to the public applies only to records created or stored on a government employee’s personal device and should not be extended to records on public agencies’ e-mail servers, the Washington state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In a unanimous opinion, the court reversed an appeals court decision that said state law did not require the release of records from several University of Washington employees who are union members because they were prepared outside their “scope of employment.” The university reviewed emails of one of the faculty members, who is a member of Service Employees International Union Local 925. UW said it planned to release 3,913 pages of e-mails unless there was a court injunction. About 100 pages of records were provided to the Freedom Foundation, but the trial court ruled that state law did not require release of the rest of them. An appeals court agreed. In its decision released on Sept. 2, the high court agreed with the Freedom Foundation. “Consistent with the (Public Records Act) ‘strongly worded mandate for broad disclosure of public records,’ we construe the statute’s disclosure requirements liberally and its exemptions narrowly,” wrote Justice Debra Stephens. State law defines a public record as “any writing containing information relating to the conduct of government or the performance of any governmental or proprietary function prepared, owned, used, or retained
by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics.” In a 2015 decision, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that then-Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist’s text messages created on his private phone were public records if they pertained to government duties. The high court concluded that records on a private cell phone “can be a public record’ if they are prepared, owned, used, or retained within the scope of employment.” The issue raised by SEIU 925’s complaint was a different one, the Supreme Court said in its decision. The issue was whether records stored on a public agency server met another part of the definition of a public record; whether they “contain information relating to the conduct of government or the performance of any governmental or proprietary function.” Judge Stephens wrote that the appeals court erred, conflating the analyses in the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision to conclude that regardless of where a particular record is created or stored, “whether an agency employee’s record is subject to disclosure hinges on if the record was prepared, used, or retained within the scope of employment.” The Supreme Court said the “scope of employment” test applies only to records on a public employee’s personal device or account. Also, the test determines only whether such records meet the third part of the definition of a public record, which is whether the document was “prepared, owned, used, or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form
or characteristics.” The high court sent the case back to King County Superior Court to issue another ruling based on the “proper analysis” of the issues. The justices also said the Superior Court should consider SEIU 925’s other arguments against release of the records, which focus on statutory and constitutional claims. Attorneys for SEIU 925 didn’t return messages seeking comment. Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, said the nonprofit group agrees with the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision. “If a record is retained by an agency on an agency server, then it’s almost presumed it is a public record — unless it can be shown that it is clearly, completely unrelated to public business,” said Nixon, a former state legislator.
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FREEDOM IN THE NEWS IN PRINT
SEPT. 24, 2019
STATE SUPREME COURT SAYS UNIONIZED UW EMPLOYEES’ EMAILS SUBJECT TO PUBLIC SCRUTINY “This saga dates back to a December 2015 public records request by the Freedom Foundation, a free-market conservative think tank located in Olympia seeking emails or other records from several UW faculty members and employees related to their union efforts. ” IN PRINT
Oct. 6, 2019
SPOKANE’S PROPOSITION 1 WOULD MAKE BARGAINING BETWEEN CITY, UNIONS PUBLIC “Supporters of the public bargaining process, among them freemarket groups like the Freedom Foundation ... argue it’s a check on government spending that has been approved by the courts. But Joe Cavanaugh, president of Spokane Local 270, which represents many of the city’s clerical and maintenance workers, said he’s not so sure the courts have permitted such measures. ”
“We don’t have to pick up our muskets and go to battle. But we do have to file lawstuits and go to court. If we don’t support groups like the Freedom Foundation, we might as well call it a day and go home. It’s over.” LAURA INGRAHAM Sept. 21, 2019
ON AIR
SEPT. 22, 2019
UNION GROUPS PROTEST OUTSIDE FREEDOM FOUNDATION EVENT IN BELLEVUE
“Several union groups and their supporters spent Saturday night protesting outside the Freedom Foundation’s annual fundraiser dinner. Laura Ingraham from Fox News was invited to be the event’s keynote speaker.The annual event was held at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue. The union groups chanted, cheered, and denounced the Freedom Foundation for their antiunion stance outside the hotel.” IN PRINT
OCT. 4, 2019
SEIU LOCAL SETTLES DUES COLLECTION LAWSUIT FOR $3.25 MILLION “In a statement, the Freedom Foundation, which represents some of the workers, called the settlement good news, but said it represents just a fraction of the dues at issue. It estimated that SEIU gained as much as $15 million since 2014. Its clients seeking reimbursement were not part of the lawsuit that the SEIU settled; they have the option of joining the settlement class or continuing to pursue their own lawsuit.
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A P U BL IC AT I ON OF T HE FREEDOM FOUNDAT I ON
ACTION TIMELINE SPOTLIGHTING SOME OF THE FREEDOM FOUNDATION’S NOTEWORTHY MILESTONES DURING THE PAST MONTH
Oct. 2 The Freedom Foundation on Oct. 2 files a federal lawsuit with the U.S. Western District Court in Tacoma against the state’s Department of Labor and Industries and its assistant director of human resources, Heather Normoyle. The complaint alleges the agency denied Freedom Foundation canvassers the same access to the public areas of its Tumwater headquarters building that is routinely granted to other organizations — including labor unions. The Freedom Foundation visited the site on the June 27 anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus v. AFSCME affirming the right of workers to opt out of union dues. Oct. 9 Maxford Nelsen, labor policy director for the Freedom Foundation is appointed by President Donald Trump to fill a seat on the Federal Service Impasses Panel, an indepen-
dent entity within the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Members serve on a parttime basis and help to resolve impasses in contract negotiations between federal agencies and labor unions representing federal employees. Oct. 10 The Freedom Foundation files an appeal in Oregon District Court on behalf of nine Oregon public employees in Anderson, et al. v. SEIU, et al. The case alleges that three Oregon government unions are relying on membership cards that are unconstitutional to force public employees to pay money to labor unions. These membership cards look harmless, but the fine print specifies that dues payments are irrevocable except for a short 10- to 15-day window each year. The nine named plaintiffs, who represent hundreds — if not thousands — of similarly situated Oregon public employees, objected to union membership but have been
forced to continue paying union dues despite their stated desire to opt out. Oct. 11 Aaron Withe, formerly director of the Freedom Foundation’s operations in Oregon, has been appointed national director and will coordinate the opening of branch offices in other states. Withe started with the Freedom Foundation in 2015 as an Oregon canvasser, visiting government employees in their homes and offices to educate them about their First Amendment rights to opt out of union participation. Within a year he was in charge of the entire outreach program in the state and, in 2017, was named Oregon director. Oct. 15 A letter to the editor written by Freedom Foundation national director Aaron Withe appears in the Washington Times. Headlined “Unions not above the law,” the piece chronicles the organization’s recent unanmous victory in Washngton State Supreme Court in a landmark public disclosure case concernng access to documents dealing with an attempt to unionize faculty members at the University of Washington.
If you’re 70 and a half or older and must take a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from your Tradional IRA, or if you’ve inherited an IRA, you can avoid taxation by gifting all or a portion of the RMD to the Freedom Foundation For more information, contact Gerrit Shilman at: GShilman@Freedom Foundation.com or call (360) 956-3482