Earlier this month, the Freedom Foundation celebrated another major milestone — our determined efforts to help public employees eager to leave their union have now cost those government unions more than $200 million in lost dues.
That’s money the workers can keep in their own pockets rather than watching it confiscated to pay for a radical political agenda to which many are categorically opposed.
Since 2014, the Freedom Foundation has informed tens of thousands of government employees about their rights under a pair of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings to decline to participate in or fund a labor union. As a direct result of this outreach, more than 114,000 have left, blowing a gaping hole in the unions’ finances.
Union members pay anywhere from $800 to $1,200 yearly in dues, and that adds up quickly over time. The Freedom Foundation’s Opt Out Today website recently introduced a “Dues Calculator” to show dues-paying government union members just how much money they can save over their career by opting out.
With inflation hitting record highs, it is essential for that money to remain with the workers who earn it rather than being spent on a union political agenda that includes defunding our police, bankrolling Planned Parenthood and forcing public schools to adopt about the hate-filled Critical Race Theory curriculum.
In a recent blog, the Freedom Foundation reported that the National Education Association alone seized $377 million from its members during 2021, spending it most of it to advance a political agenda that had little or nothing to do with teacher wages and working conditions
While getting $200 million out of the union’s coffers and back into the pockets of working-class Americans is something to celebrate, the Freedom Foundation is just getting started.
With our national expansion up and running, opt outs are coming in fast and furious, and union members all across the country are finding out about their rights and saying goodbye to union dues.
While today we celebrate $200 million, the big celebration will come once we hit the $1 billion benchmark.
