Almost invariably, when our union friends and their allies in the media seek to undermine the Freedom Foundation’s credibility, they ominously suggest the Freedom Foundation has more on its radar than simply freeing public-sector workers from the bondage of mandatory unionization.
Our real end game, they suggest in hushed tones, is nothing less than restructuring the nation’s political processes by separating the left from its most reliably generous funding source – organized labor in general and public-sector unions in particular.
An unintentionally hilarious article this week in The Guardian, for example, trumpets a “secret” internal document obtained from the State Policy Network in which the organization urges conservative think tanks around the country to emulate the Freedom Foundation’s wildly successful outreach programs to reach newly freed workers and advise them of their Constitutional rights.
There just one problem with this revelation: Our methods and big-picture goals are no secret.
They’re spelled out in exquisite detail on our website, and the Freedom Foundation employs a nimble communications staff for the sole purpose of sharing our story with anyone who’ll listen.
And why not? We’re justifiably proud of what we stand for.
The unions, on the other hand, are evidently more modest about their accomplishments – no doubt because most have little or nothing to do with the interests of the thousands of public-sector workers still forcibly represented and whose money unions are using to bankroll their leftist agenda.
To cite just the most recent example, while fellow Socialist Kshama Sawant was the nominal face of Seattle’s misguided head tax proposal, the real operator in the background, as always, was SEIU 775 President David Rolf.
Does punishing successful private-sector job-producers like Amazon in any way improve the pay, benefits or working conditions of workers represented by Rolf’s union? And if not, isn’t it a violation of his fiduciary responsibility to its members to waste their hard-earned dollars on his pet causes instead of issues that actually benefit them?
When Amazon balked at the tax, SEIU’s front group asked the state’s feckless attorney general to bring criminal charges against the company.
None of this is anything new, you understand.
SEIU was also the driving force behind Seattle’s failed (for now) income tax on the wealthy, with an eye to imposing a similar scheme statewide.
Rolf also orchestrated the $15 minimum wage movement in SeaTac and Seattle, just as he championed “secure scheduling” regulations, under which employers can be fined if employees aren’t advised of their work schedules two weeks in advance.
The list of job-killing liberal causes funded by Rolf with SEIU dues money also includes mandatory paid family leave and legislation passed during the most recent session that would privatize all homecare workers in order to circumvent a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that outlawed mandatory union dues or fees.
The financial gurus in Seattle always blame the uber-liberal Seattle City Council, the state Legislature and/or Gov. Jay Inslee for these failed ideas – and they’ve more than earned any scorn that comes their way.
But in the grand scheme of things, they’re just doing the bidding of the group with the money – SEIU.
The problem is, it’s someone else’s money.
