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Ignorance is not bliss

To help get the word out, we’ve put together a brief summary of government workers’ “Janus rights” and we’d love your help passing it along to the folks who should be aware.

In a nutshell, here is what every teacher, police officer, public servant, and any other employee of the government should know:

This week we launched a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of 9 Illinois employees who paid agency fees, a.k.a. “fair share” fees, to the government union in order to keep their jobs. Last June, the Supreme Court ruled that requirement to be illegal.

One of the plaintiffs, Blake Leitch, and I appeared at a press conference yesterday to talk about the case. Blake, an Iraq war veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart, paid about $2,500 in fair share fees to AFSCME during the five years he worked at the Illinois Department of Veteran Affairs. When he joined the military twenty years ago he made an oath to defend and protect our country’s Constitution, an oath he continues to honor through this lawsuit.

Be heard

As a fair share member of the government union at my work place, I never felt heard.

I didn’t want to be a member of the union, yet they represented me in contract negotiations. I didn’t agree with their politics, yet the fees taken from my paycheck supported their political agenda.

Filing my case was empowering. In that moment I finally felt heard. And when we went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won I knew my voice made a difference.

You can be heard too.

Informed decisions

I just got back from Pennsylvania. I met with fellow workers who are fighting to be let out of their union and the folks who are working to ensure government workers’ rights are recognized in the Commonwealth.

I told them I started this fight because I believe workers should have a choice. Let workers decide what’s best for them – union or not.

Knowledge is power

Knowledge is power.

Unions know that and deliberately keep information from their members. A recent article in Trib Live highlights the experience of Francisco Molina, a former SEIU shop steward. His efforts to share information about union guidelines and practices with his colleagues were not appreciated by union officials. And when he alerted his co-workers to a union initiative that would require them to pay union dues “even if they found another job or stopped being union members,” he was pushed out.

This is the reality for many government workers

Shalea Oliver had been trying to leave her union for more than a year when she found a website offering help. It had a template resignation letter that she could send to her union, SEIU Local 668, and a form to fill out if the letter wasn’t effective, which she did…”

All over the country, teachers, firefighters, caseworkers and other public servants are discovering they now have a voice and choice when it comes to union membership. They’re also discovering that the unions are making it difficult to exercise those rights. Fortunately, this Philadelphia Inquirer story is positive:

Pennsylvania can no longer ignore its employees’ rights

Last fall we contacted government leaders in more than a dozen states, alerting them the Janus v. AFSCME decision had restored government workers’ constitutional rights and freed them from mandatory union membership.

We also warned these public officials that they needed to fulfill their responsibilities and enforce that law. If they failed to do so, we would take action on behalf of government workers in their states. They not only ignored, but openly defied the Supreme Court ruling.

So we’re taking action.

The people who still need help

Janus v. AFSCME brought an end to fair share fees and forced unionization for five million government workers across the country. It was a huge victory, but it didn’t help everyone.

Workers for private companies in 23 states can still be forced to pay union dues or fees in order to keep their jobs.

This isn’t right.

Mark Janus to receive “profile in courage” award

We are pleased to announce Mark Janus is being awarded the National Review Institute’s 2019 Whittaker Chambers Award which was established in 2017 to honor a “profile in courage.” This award feels particularly fitting as today marks the one year anniversary of our oral arguments before the Supreme Court.

Celebrating workers’ choices

Several reports have come through my inbox I think are worth sharing:

Based on the most recent federal Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the California Policy Center reports that not only did 41,000 people in the Golden State stop paying agency fees, but union membership dropped by 86,000 members.

In Oregon, the Freedom Foundation determined that 26% of SEIU 503 members, Oregon’s largest government union, were no longer paying dues by the end of December 2018.