Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Actions Speak Louder Than Words
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Actions Speak Louder Than Words

“Actions speak louder than words,” my Grandpa used to say.

A quick comparison of the actions of the Freedom Foundation and SEIU 775 when it comes to Rev. Rosetta Horne perfectly illustrates this.

Rev. Horne is a minister who takes care of her 89 year-old disabled mother. Like tens of thousands of other caregivers, she receives a modest wage from the state for taking care of her mother, who is on Medicaid. Rev. Horne was forced to be part of a union, SEIU 775, and pay union dues.

As a minister, Rev. Horne disagrees with how the union spends her dues money on things like Planned Parenthood so she exercised her constitutional right to opt-out of the union. She appeared in a Freedom Foundation TV ad urging other forcibly unionized caregivers to opt-out if they disagreed with how the union spent their dues money.

Call it  a “coincidence,” but after she appeared in the Freedom Foundation video, the state stopped paying her wages. For two months. Two long months, with bills piling up.

After hours of phone calls and emails, she couldn’t get the problem fixed with the state. She contacted SEIU 775 but didn’t hear back from them. (Even though she opted out of the union, the union is still legally required to represent her against the state.) The union didn’t care about her.

Facing eviction, Rev. Horne turned to the Freedom Foundation. We filed a lawsuit on her behalf (for free, of course). In response, the state started paying her again. Our generous donors raised $3,800 almost instantly. As a direct result of Freedom Foundation donors, Rev. Horne and her mother were not evicted.

The one thing the unions are supposed to do is help workers in disputes with employers. That would mean lifting a finger to get Rev. Horne paid. Instead, the unions protest Freedom Foundation events and harass members of our board of directors. (By the way, the unions seem able to pay the “protestors” but can’t seem to do anything to get Rev. Horne paid by the state.)

Yes, Grandpa, you were right: actions speak louder than words. Freedom Foundation helps real people; the unions protest but abandon the very people they claim they are there to help.

Managing Attorney
goverstreet@freedomfoundation.com
Greg Overstreet has been fighting government in court almost his entire career. He has been General Counsel for the Building Industry Association of Washington, a regulatory litigator at the state’s largest law firm (Perkins Coie), was the Special Assistant Attorney General for Government Accountability, operated his own law firm specializing in suing to obtain public records for citizens, and was a regulatory specialist for a large financial company. He was the editor-in-chief of the Public Records Act Deskbook and was an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.