SEIU forces workers to fund Seattle head tax campaign

Jami Lund
June 12, 2018

UPDATE: On June 12, the Seattle City Council repealed the extraordinary employer tax. The hearing was raucous with speakers disrupting, chanting and offering speeches which would have been in vogue during the Soviet revolution. Likely the printed signs and some of the attendees were funded with union dues money.

Since the referendum and its opposition effort is moot, will workers get their money back from the pro-tax campaign they were forced to fund?

Healthcare employees, caregivers, school employees and public employees across the state are forced to fund a campaign to block those who are calling for a referendum to overturn Seattle’s controversial head tax.

As is common with fringe campaigns to push the envelope on behalf of leftist causes, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is right in the middle of it all. SEIU 1199NW has pledged $30,000 to the campaign – dues money forcibly taken from members who might or might not support the cause. Additional “in-kind” support is also being provided.

SEIU 775 reported its staff provided $24,521.65 worth of campaign work. Another $45,000 was harvested those working in SEIU-represented workplaces.

In sum, nearly $100,000 of garnished wages was taken for this speculative campaign to oppose residents who want to call for a vote on the head tax.

Who pays for SEIU’s targeted causes?

Tens of thousands of employees who are forced to pay a portion of their earnings to SEIU as a condition of working are paying. They may be a caregiver at Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake, a Health Department nurse in La Connor, a bus driver in Lynden or an individual caregiver in Colville, but the union executives have decided they will all be funding a campaign to prevent a public vote on the controversial new tax in Seattle.

Many extreme causes of the left are not widely supported but receive a tremendous artificial boost because unwilling workers are forced to fund these causes. The Freedom Foundation has highlighted a few examples:

SEIU members can opt out of funding the pro-tax campaign in Seattle

Healthcare workers stuck in SEIU 1199-captured workplacesmay opt out of paying for the causes selected by the union executives.

Simply fill out a simple form here and mail it in for a reduction in the dues collected by the union.

The public employees who are paying SEIU 1199NW include healthcare workers who are employed by:

Department of Social and Health Services
Department of Health
Western State Hospital
Eastern State Hospital
Harborview Medical Center

Many private-sector employees are also paying SEIU 1199 as a condition of employment. They have the right to a reduced payment as well and may use the letter here.

Classified school employees who pay Public School Employees PSE-SEIU 1948 may opt out of paying for the causes selected by the union executives as well.

Filling out and mailing the form here will end political spending.

Individual home-based caregivers and child care providers may end payment to the SEIU at the site for SEIU 775 and SEIU 925.

- Labor, Washington

Jami Lund

Senior Policy Analyst

Jami Lund is the Freedom Foundation’s Senior Policy Analyst. From 2004 to 2011, he developed legislative policy as a research analyst for the Washington House Republican Caucus. Prior to that he worked for the Freedom Foundation as the Project Manager for the Teachers Paycheck Protection project, shepherding the development of the Foundation’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court case to protect teacher rights. Jami is an accomplished speaker and researcher, one of Washington state’s top scholars on education policy and finance.