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FREEDOM in ACTION
Emails:
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– LUIS
n n n “Thank you for helping me successfully opt out of SEIU Local 721. Without the Freedom Foundation’s help, I would still be coerced into paying for a service that I am powerless to negotiate about. Your help has sent a clear message to the union that its members still have choices and that all “People Want To Be Free.” It also renewed my faith in our democratic system that justice is not completely broken. For your assistance, I am grateful and wish you and the Freedom Foundation continued success in fighting to give back the freedom to the common person.”
– GEORGE
n n n “I’m incredibly grateful for your organization’s guidance throughout this process. You’ve enabled me to receive my $700 back each year and spend it on my own desires not the unions.”
– ELIZABETH
n n n “Thank you again and again for helping me with the union harassment that was so scary and coming my way after I shared with staff that the union was taking extra money from their checks to pay for flowers and political influence. Ironically, I am 80 percent democratic, but I want to allow my money to select the candidate I choose – not them! And feel people with less money should be able to use that money (their money) for daycare, medical bills or anything they want.”
By AARON WITHE Reprinted from the DAILY WIRE Feb. 15, 2021
Imagine that you pay a fee for a service like Netflix, but you end up not liking it, so you cancel your membership.
Then, Netflix decides it is still providing you a benefit, so you must continue to pay the membership fee. Your response would probably be to tell your bank to stop paying them. However, for public employees who want to opt out of their union, it’s not that simple.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) made a landmark decision in Janus v. AFSCME that allowed every single public employee in the country to opt out of their government union and stop paying union dues.
However, for tens of thousands of public employees across the country, these rights are being suppressed by the unions and their employers, the government.
For years, we’ve run a campaign to inform and assist these public employees with their rights to opt out of their unions.
And for years, unions, rather than provide benefits and services to their members that might convince them to stay, have been pulling every trick in the book to coerce and steal these employees’ hard-earned dollars.
One of these tricks involves including deceptive fine print in their union membership cards that attempts to force public employees to continue to pay union dues for up to one year after they decide to opt-out of their union.
If any other private-sector business tried to implement these types of tactics, the left and the right would band together to condemn such actions. However, government unions are the largest contributors to liberal politicians in the country, and those same bought-andpaid-for politicians allow this practice to happen in the states they control.
This week, the Freedom Foundation handed SCOTUS a prime opportunity to stop government unions from blatantly ignoring the Janus decision.
They now have the chance to free millions of taxpayer-funded employees from being forced to pay union dues, all in one little-known lawsuit out of the 9th Circuit.
The case is Belgau v. Inslee, and a decision by the U.S Supreme Court could have a devastating impact on government unions that maintain a stranglehold on state and federal policymaking.
My colleagues and I have been fighting government unions’ deceptive tactics for years, even before Janus. In fact, we submitted an amicus brief to SCOTUS in the Janus decision in anticipation of such tactics being used.
Rather than allowing unions to regard every government employee as a dues-paying member until he or she successfully opts out, the brief argued that no one can legally be a member until they agree to opt in.
The court concurred, and when the final ruling in Janus v. AFSCME was released, it made clear that any employee who agrees to join a union and pay dues is waiving their First Amendment right not to support the union’s political activity.
And since a waiver of rights cannot simply be assumed, the prospective member must be advised of their rights and grant permission before a union can deduct dues from their pay.
In his majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito quoted our brief almost word for word, and its meaning is unambiguous.
Nonetheless, unions ignored it. And when we took them to court to enforce the ruling, lower court judg es on the west coast consistently declined to interpret Janus as broadly as its authors intended.
Some judges went so far as to say Justice Alito’s opinion was wrong.
Belgau should change all that. Its plaintiffs are a group of Washington state employees from whose wag es the union is deducting dues long after they demanded their freedom.
If heard by the court, Belgau will be the first to argue that every government union membership agreement signed before — or since — Janus is invalid unless accompanied by written proof that the worker has knowingly waived his or her right to opt out.
If SCOTUS agrees, such a ruling would quite literally mean every government union in the country must have all public employees sign new membership cards affirmatively consenting to have union dues taken from their paychecks.
Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took similar action in Wisconsin, which led to more than 50 percent of public employees making the choice to leave their unions.
If the justices side with the Freedom Foundation, it will be a cataclysmic event for government unions. With the stroke of a pen, labor leaders won’t have millions of members blindly handing over their dues every month.
Overnight, the whole script will flip. Instead of organizations working to help union members get out, unions will have to work full-time just to coax them back in.
Most won’t return. And when the unions have no members, they’ll also have no money.
That means liberal candidates and causes those unions back almost exclusively will have to start funding themselves the way conservatives do — with their own money instead of someone else’s.
Union bosses, of course, will scream bloody murder about how unfair the decision is. After all, when you’ve enjoyed a government-enforced monopoly for generations, the prospect of one day having to compete on the open market for someone’s dues money must be terrifying.
Aaron Withe is national director of the Freedom Foundation, a multi-state public policy organization specializing in the abuses of government employee unions.
IN PRINT
Feb. 5, 2021
Biden sweeps Trump’s rabidly anti-union appointees out of a key federal labor agency
“Continuing his considerable effort to strip the government of all vestiges of Trumpism, President Biden on Tuesday swept a clutch of union-busting officials out of a little-known but all-important federal labor relations agency ... Other former members boasted associations with such right-wing groups as the Freedom Foundation, which launched attacks on public sector unions in Washington state.”
FREEDOM in the NEWS
ON IN PRINT
Feb. 3, 2021
Labor board dismisses union misconduct complaints following Biden purge
Roseburg resident Alex Skarlatos will join Freedom Foundation staff
“Maxford Nelsen, director of labor policy at the Freedom Foundation, said ... “The NLRB under Biden may return to past double standards, allowing employers to assist unions in organizing but prohibiting employers from assisting employee efforts to rid themselves of an unwanted union. Joe Biden has acted quickly to deliver on his promise to be the most pro-union president in history. Unfortunately, doing what is best for unions is not the same thing as doing what is best for workers.”
IN PRINT
Feb. 11, 2021
“Attorneys for the employees asked the Supreme Court to take up their case against Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and the Washington Federation of State Employees, arguing that state and union officials violated (the Cconstitution) by erecting barriers to leave the union and stop the automatic payroll deductions. ‘The justices have a golden opportunity here to reinforce their clearly stated intent in Janus — that public employees can freely choose to pay, or not pay, government unions,’ said Aaron Withe, national director of the conservative Freedom Foundation.”
ON AIR
Jan. 30, 2021
“Alek Skarlatos has joined the staff of the Freedom Foundation. Skarlatos ... ran unsuccessfully for Congress against incumbent Peter DeFazio in 2020. Skarlatos said he became familiar with the Freedom Foundation during his Congressional race and was ‘eager to join the team’ when the job offer was extended.”
If they’ll lie about how your mother died, what else would they lie about?
Tumwater, Wash., resident Christina Frye’s 99-year-old mother died last year in a fall. That was tough enough to take. But to make matters worse, the state of Washington deliberately misclassified her death as a COVID-19 fatality because she had at one time tested positive for the virus. Christine didn’t even realize what had happened until she saw the Freedom Foundation’s Max Nelsen being interviewed on Fox News about the fraud.
Makes you think, huh?
ACTION TIMELINE
SPOTLIGHTING SOME OF THE FREEDOM FOUNDATION’S NOTEWORTHY ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE PAST MONTH
Jan. 29
The California Globe publishes an op-ed written by Freedom Foundation California Outreach Director Samuel Coleman headlined, “Gov. Newsom willing to re-open schools — just as soon as the unions tell him to.” The piece concludes, “As disappointing as this all is, it should be clear at this point what Newsom’s priorities are getting re-elected, not protecting California’s children or getting them back in the classroom. The parents of underprivileged kids won’t pay for his re-election, and he needs to keep the money flowing.”
Feb. 10
Oregon State Rep. Mike Nearman (R-Independence) a introduces a Freedom Foundation-backed bill in the Oregon State Legislature that would remove so-called “union-protection clauses” from collective bargaining agreements with the state. Such clauses require unions to represent every worker in a given workplace whether they are union members or not. Ironically, unions insist on these provisions because they have historically been cited to justify “agency fees” that force workers to pay the union even after they’ve opted out of membership.
High-Water Mark: 276 opt-outs in one day
The Freedom Foundation’s outreach efforts are off to a quick start in 2021. On Jan. 4, opt-outs reached a one-day high of 276 public employees leaving their government unions.
Feb. 11
The Freedom Foundation appeals Belgau v. Inslee to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case involves several Washington state employees whose union continues to deduct dues from their paychecks long after they requested to opt out. The union maintains the workers signed a valid membership card and the dues deductions can only be stopped if the opt-out request is made during a two-week window every year. And lower court judges have upheld this interpretation, But Belgau argues that, according to the wording of the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, mandatory membership and dues violate the First Amendment, meaning that workers who agree to join the union and pay dues anyway are waiving their right not to. And since a waiver of rights cannot be assumed, every worker must have been informed of his or her rights when they sign their membership contract. If SCOTUS sides with the Freedom Foundation, virtually every public-sector union in the country would suddenly find itself with no members and no money.
Feb. 11
The Washington Times publishes a story about the Freedom Foundation’s appeal of Belgau v. Inslee on its front page. Headlined “Washington state workers challenge post-Janus restrictions on leaving unions,” the article includes a quote from Freedom Foundation National Director Aaron Withe that, “The justices have a golden opportunity here to reinforce their clearly stated intent in Janus — that public employees can freely choose to pay, or not pay, government unions,” said Aaron Withe, national director of the conservative Freedom Foundation.” Feb. 15
The Daily Wire publishes an op-ed by Freedom Foundation National Director Aaron Withe. Headlined, “Government unions have been stealing money for years — now SCOTUS has a chance to intervene,” the piece argues, “If the justices side with the Freedom Foundation, it will be a cataclysmic event for government unions. With the stroke of a pen, labor leaders won’t have millions of members blindly handing over their dues every month.”
Feb. 16
The enforcement arm of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission announces it plans to investigate a complaint filed in January by the Freedom Foundation, alleging the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) spent more than five years trying to camouflage millions of dollars’ worth of illegal political spending of its members’ dues.
Feb. 18
The Freedom Foundation appeals its fourth case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals alleging an Oregon public employee’s signature was forged on her union membership card, allowing it to continue deducting dues from her paycheck.
It was true then, and it’s true now.
-- JOHN F. KENNEDY, 1961
