Ohio’s public employees have been on the receiving end of bitter frigidness from old man winter and major union bosses alike.

In recent weeks, the Freedom Foundation in Ohio has heard from dozens of former members of AFSCME 8, SEIU 1199 and the Ohio Education Association (OEA). Despite successfully opting out of their union, dues are still being deducted from the workers’ checks — at the demand of unions bosses and apparently with the full blessing of Ohio’s current leadership.

Take, for example, two educators from the OEA. Despite successfully terminating their union membership in January, OEA claims they still owe hundreds of dollars in a lump sum.

Why? To cover membership dues for the remainder of 2021.

Mind you, one of these educators had been a union member of the OEA for just three days in 2021.

Meanwhile, school employees of the Cleveland Metropolitan system and former members of SEIU 1199 are also in distress, having been told their dues payments must continue despite opting out of the union.

How can Ohio’s government unions blatantly defy the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus vs. AFSCME that recognized the right of public employees to decline union membership and dues?

That’s easy. The unions are permitted to thumb their noses at the court by bureaucrats and judges whose first loyalty is to their partisan politics rather than the law.

Rather than complying with the court’s unmistakable intent and simply allowing workers to decide for themselves whether to associate with — and pay dues to — an organization that doesn’t represent their values, unions have made the decision to contest every potential defection.

Union leaders regularly employ deception, arbitrary opt-out windows and intimidation tactics to bully members into signing membership cards they consider irrevocable.

They’re not. In fact, the Freedom Foundation will ask U.S. Supreme Court to consider Belgau v. Inslee, a lawsuit that could invalidate every single union membership contract in America unless the worker was advised before signing that, by doing  so, he or she was waiving their First Amendment right to opt out.

Someone has to care that someone’s hard-earned money is at stake. Someone has to stand up to union greed on behalf of government workers.

That someone can be the patriots at the Freedom Foundation. Thanks to the generosity and support of many selfless people, we are fighting to help public employees keep money that rightfully belongs to them.