Grace HellandSeems like the Oregon School Employees Association is adopting a new strategy to raise money for its political purposes — making “mistakes” and ignoring its members’ requests to opt out.
In December 2019, to cite just one example, Ricardo Figueroa sent an opt-out letter to OSEA, asking that he be removed from membership and that the union stop deducting dues from his account. Several weeks later, he called and spoke with a Freedom Foundation paralegal who suggested he send another letter by certified mail to ensure it was received.
She also suggested he note on his next letter that he had sent a similar request in December and ask for dues to be refunded back to the date on his original opt-out.
He did just that in February. Still, the result was stone silence from the union.
Figueroa then sent another opt-out letter in April, asking that dues no longer be deducted from his account. However, he continued to receive the cold shoulder from the union that claimed to represent him and his interests.
After still receiving no response from the union, Figueroa called the Freedom Foundation once again, and Oregon attorney Rebekah Millard quickly sent a demand letter on his behalf to OSEA.
The union immediately buckled under the pressure — an unspoken but obvious admission of guilt.
Attorneys immediately responded to the Freedom Foundation’s request the day after receiving it, claiming that “through an administrative error, we show that while he is listed as having a non-member status in our records, his change of status was not communicated to the Beaverton School District until yesterday, when the error was discovered.”
Most likely fearful of having a lawsuit filed against them by the Freedom Foundation, OSEA promised to immediately issue a refund check to Ricardo of all dues deducted from his account since 2019.
OSEA claims it was a simple administrative mistake. Wrong. In made three administrative mistakes by ignoring three separate opt-out letters. Which begs the question: If its system is messed up enough to miss all three of Figueroa’s opt-out letters, how many more “mistakes” are sliding under OSEA’s radar?
Thanks to the Freedom Foundation, OSEA will have to learn very quickly how to properly process documentation.