Grace Helland“We do the essential jobs that keep Oregon working. We’ve been called ‘heroes’ during the pandemic. We risk our lives during wildfires. We provide lifelines to families hit by the recession.”
This was the beginning paragraph of an email I received from SEIU 503. Every time I read those words, I become more highly disgusted and disturbed, and I feel more cheated than I did before.
I became a personal support worker (PSW) for a disabled child at the age of 20, a young person working in a union-represented position for the first time. Thankfully, I entered the arena after the pre-Janus age, where I was not required to pay “fair share” dues to the union, who hides behind the pretense of being on the ground and actively working homecare workers but is really an organization full of bureaucrats who are in it only for the money and power, and who do absolutely nothing but play politics.
There’s no disputing the union is a political entity. This past election cycle, SEIU 503 started doing a lot of teleconferences. It would either email us in the morning that the calls would take place, or they wouldn’t give any notice at all.
But they would also automatically dial you into the meeting. It didn’t matter if I was busy, there was no way to avoid being called into these meetings. (I once got a call while at the dentist).
Generally, I hung up on these calls without listening to anything they had to say. I already knew the union was liberal, anti-gun and pro-abortion, which are the exact opposite of my beliefs.
But one time I actually stayed on the call because I was curious about what they were discussing and what was going on in the union, what they claimed to be doing for us. And they started telling us all to vote for Joe Biden.
Not only that, but they told us they were organizing groups of people to volunteer to campaign for Biden, encouraging us to contact them to volunteer and get started.
I was absolutely horrified.
The union doesn’t even try to hide its overt political involvement from the people they claim to represent. In fact, they try to condone it.
One time, I got an email from them entitled, “Why we need to be political.”
In it, I was told that “…(O)ur advocacy can’t stop at members’ personal interests. It means that we work with coalitions like Fair Shot to raise the minimum wage, extend paid sick leave to all workers and continue to fight for life-improving changes like more affordable housing and paid family leave.”
What does that really mean? Controlling its members isn’t enough for a union. They need more power. If they’re able to reach outside of just their members, they are better able to destroy the capitalist market and destroy the very foundations of what America stands for.
That’s why it’s so important to support the Freedom Foundation, who take the Unions to task for their unethical behavior and holds them accountable. That’s why I work for them and why I’m a donor.
The Freedom Foundation actually cares about government workers and works nonstop to inform them of their rights and help them to defend those rights.
Now SEIU, to address your claim about being “heroes.” You’re not.
That’s my glory to claim, along with other frontline and essential workers. You didn’t do anything to earn that title. You’re actually the antagonist. And thanks to the Freedom Foundation, people like me have an advocate who fights for our rights and holds you accountable for your political schemes.