Aaron WitheThis week the Freedom Foundation employed the help of Santa Claus and his helpers to visit government buildings around Oregon to deliver a special Christmas gift: Freedom from paying union dues.
While the Freedom Foundation has conducted similar outreach in the past, this is the first year government employees have been able to opt out of their union entirely, due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in Janus v. AFSCME.
Santa reports that he’s been surprised at the results so far, as it seems most people have already opted out. Some preliminary numbers from the state also back this up, with one department reporting that over 50 percent of its union-represented employees are no longer having union dues withheld from their wages (further details to come).
Of course, not everyone enjoys the presence of Santa, his helpers, candy canes, Christmas songs, or happiness in general. Some union activists actually threatened Santa and his elves because they didn’t want any more employees learning about their rights. One stated the Freedom Foundation “shouldn’t be out there spreading lies.” When challenged to identify a specific lie, they responded with a series of words that couldn’t be strung together into a logical sentence but were presumably from the movie The Wolf of Wall Street.
Those employees that did learn about their rights for the first time were overjoyed to hear they could stop paying union dues. A few signed opt out forms on the spot.
Santa even updated his technology this year and sent out thousands of e-mails to government employees as well, just to ensure that all state, county, city employees and teachers got the chance to give themselves a raise before the year’s end.