Over 2,000 public employees respond to Freedom Foundation’s holiday opt-out message

Matthew Hayward
December 21, 2020

Every year, the Freedom Foundation teams up with old St. Nick to bring smiles to good public employees’ faces by sharing information about how they can opt out of their union and keep more of their hard-earned money in their own pocket.

This year has been challenging in so many ways. By order of the governors, children cannot visit Santa in person this year to share with him what they want for Christmas; meanwhile, Santa’s helpers at the Freedom Foundation are also prevented from going door-to-door to share Santa’s good news with public employees.

But that doesn’t mean we’re letting government union Grinches steal their Christmas.

At the start of December, the Freedom Foundation sent emails and direct mail to public employees in Washington, Oregon, California, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

We even enlisted the help of Santa to deliver social media messaging throughout the five states.

The response has been overwhelming. Our office has been flooded with postcards, emails and calls from public employees choosing to exercise their right to opt out of paying union dues.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, we’ve processed over 2,000 opt-outs forms, representing almost $1.6 million a year snatched from the coffers of various unions and put back into the Christmas stockings of public employees.

This Christmas the Freedom Foundation celebrates with public employees in Washington, Oregon, California, Ohio and Pennsylvania who have taken their freedom back.

- Labor, National

Matthew Hayward

National Outreach Director

Before joining the Freedom Foundation, Matthew worked as supervisor at the Washington State Department of Agriculture, where he coordinated efforts between federal and state agencies, tribes, and volunteer organizations in the Puget Sound. Grassroots politics has provided Matthew with many unique and sometimes controversial experiences. These experiences range from successfully building coalitions between different factions to training and organizing volunteers to maximize their effectiveness. Matthew’s passion for freedom to educate citizens about their Constitutional rights is strong and unwavering. “I not only measure success by results, bu t by the integrity of the action taken to achieve the result.” —Matthew H.