On the fifth day of the Freedom Foundation’s Inaugural East Coast Santa helper canvassing tour, the elves drove from Albany, N.Y., to Montpelier, Vt.
The scenery was beautiful and the people were friendly.
The current visiting hours at public buildings are restricted to appointment only, but Santa’s helpers spoke with numerous public employees either leaving for or returning from their lunch breaks.
And not one person knew they didn’t have to pay union dues.
Every single public employee appeared surprised and eager to keep more of their own money, and they gladly took our postcards detailing how they can give themselves a Christmas bonus by leaving their union and stopping the dues deductions.
One employee was so heartened by the news that she agreed to take a stack of our postcards into her worksite to share with her employees.
From Montpelier, Santa’s helpers drove to Concord, N.H., with quite different conversations.
Not one person we spoke with was a union member, and none was even sure any of their coworkers were union members. But they took our cards in order to have them handy in case one came to mind.
In contrast to many government buildings we’ve encountered on the East Coast, Concord’s City Hall was open to the public, with no appointment required — so we went inside and introduced ourselves to the City Clerk’s office.
When we asked if there was a public space where we could leave some materials, they invited us to simply walk up to the Human Resources office and leave them there for the employees who would be around regularly.
We introduced ourselves to Human Resources and asked if we could leave the materials, and we were allowed to do so.
For the first time ever, Freedom Foundation opt-out materials were invited into government buildings in the Northeast.
Every day has been a different but a positive move forward in sharing the Freedom Foundation message to public employees that they can leave their union behind and still keep their money, their benefits and their job.
