Oregon’s largest government employee union, SEIU 503, had been on a decades-long winning streak prior to June 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in Janus v. AFSCME that mandatory union membership and/or agency fees in the public sector are a violation of the workers’ Constitutional rights.

Knowing the union had no intention of notifying its members of this landmark decision, the Freedom Foundation developed and distributed mail, emails, texts and other materials to SEIU 503 members all over Oregon to inform them of their rights.

SEIU 503s’ 2017 LM-2 report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor claimed the union had 58,384 members/fee-payers. However, by 2018 — the year Janus was decided — that number had already been whittled down to 45,741.

And with fewer paychecks to be plundered came a major reduction in the amount of dues money the union was able to spend influencing Oregon politics.

This was a victory public employees in Oregon, who now won’t have to fund political causes they don’t agree with. And the trend has only continued. According to the union’s newest report, membership declined yet again in 2020 – for the third year in a row since Janus – meaning that, in total, SEIU 503 has lost at least 15,284 members/fee payers since the decision, resulting in a $3.6 million reduction in dues revenue and a $3 million drop in spending on political and lobbying activities.



Editor's note: this article is excerpted from a post that first appeared on the Freedom Foundation website


--Josh Ebert

Post Date: 2021-01-14 17:52:42

Last Update: 2021-01-14 18:40:47