Unions will say a lot to stop a dues payer from leaving, and we’ve heard a lot of excuses for why dues-payers should keep the cash flowing. We’ve heard it all, from losing healthcare benefits (you won’t) to claiming that the Freedom Foundation might somehow gain access to the private information of public employees filling out our opt out form.
Typically, the attacks are vaguely worded or allude to a great battle between humble millionaire union organizers and a shadowy cabal of privatizers who want to destroy the five-day work week and send children back into the coal mines.
It’s all very hyperbolic, but unions will say anything to keep dues-payers in their pockets.
Recently, the Public Employee Federation (PEF), one of the largest public employee unions in New York, took a different tack.
Its leaders said their members were too stupid to know they were leaving the union, and that they didn’t really mean to.
In a recent communication to union members, PEF said the following of former union members who filled out opt-out form to leave their union.
“Members have been shocked to learn they inadvertently dropped out of PEF. ‘They were terrified: they did not mean to drop the union,’ Carpenter said, about members who have called PEF Organizing to rectify the issue. ‘We want to make sure the membership knows that they are using deceptive tactics to get you to send these in. Once you drop, you’ve lost rights and protections and the opportunity to vote on contracts – you’ve lost your voice.’”
The mail piece this communication refers to was a check showing the cash value of one year worth of membership, showing the true cost of membership with PEF.
This isn’t an isolated incident, either. The Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), also a large public employee union in New York, recently released a story claiming many of their dues-payers were tricked by a deceptive mail piece.
By obfuscating facts and sowing fear among their membership, unions like PEF and CSEA send a clear message to their dues-payers.
They think you’re stupid.
These deceptive tactics prove that membership losses are causing a lot of internal pain. Hundreds of members from both CSEA and PEF have parted ways with their union thanks to the resources offered by the Freedom Foundation in the past few months alone.
