How Oregon public employees can protect their rights leading up to Janus v. AFSCME

How Oregon public employees can protect their rights leading up to Janus v. AFSCME

Later this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court will issue a decision in Janus v. AFSCME, a case seeking to end the requirement that public employees in states like Oregon pay union fees as a condition of employment. Although it’s impossible to know for certain how the court will rule, the outcome is expected to be the pro-worker one, declaring mandatory union fees in the public sector unconstitutional and allowing public employees nationwide to choose for themselves whether to pay union dues or fees.

In anticipation of the ruling, public employees hoping to exercise their Janus rights should be careful of anything the union asks them to sign.

Most notably, union membership applications now commonly include fine print that locks public employees into “irrevocable” automatic dues payments unless they jump through a series of difficult hoops to cancel.

The largest state employees’ union, SEIU 503, has already applied this scheme to a select group of state-paid caregivers and been sued as a result. Another of Oregon’s largest public employee unions, AFSCME, has recently begun denying members’ cancellation requests based on similar restrictive language in their membership cards.

The point is, Oregon’s government unions have been gearing up for the Janus decision for many years. But they haven’t been doing so in ways that will increase their value to the employees who might finally be able to choose whether to pay.

Instead, they’ve revealed their playbook perfectly in their response to Harris v. Quinn, the 2014 U.S. Supreme Court decision that extended to state-paid caregivers the same opt-out rights that Janus could extend to all public employees.

As noted above, SEIU 503’s playbook was a simple, if unethical, one. It involved locking those caregivers into “irrevocable” dues payments and denying their cancellation requests. While several caregivers have sued the union with Freedom Foundation’s help, thousands more have responded to the Foundation’s outreach and successfully protected their constitutional rights in the first place by refusing to sign a union membership application.

State and local government employees who object to paying union dues or fees – and even those who are on the fence about union membership – should do the same.

Public employees should know that signing a union membership application – especially one circulated by SEIU or AFSCME – is not required and might even restrict their legal rights under the Janusdecision. Fortunately, even for those who are worried they’ve already signed one of these restrictive applications, the Freedom Foundation will be there to help them exercise their right to opt-out if (and when) the time comes.

Until then, public employees in Oregon can find out more about how to protect their rights leading up to Janus v. AFCSME by contacting the Freedom Foundation today.

Chief Executive Officer
Aaron Withe is the Chief Executive Officer of the Freedom Foundation. Aaron began his career at the Freedom Foundation in 2015, working in the outreach department. He devised a full-scale outreach campaign that included having a team of door-to-door canvassers contact all union members throughout Oregon and inform them of their rights to leave their union. After various promotions the Freedom Foundation’s Board of Directors appointed Aaron as the CEO in 2021. As an immigrant-turned-U.S. citizen, Aaron recognizes America as the freest and most prosperous country in the world. However, he also recognizes the very real threat posed by the government unions attacking the foundations of the American dream. This is what fuels Aaron as he now leads the Freedom Foundation’s national campaign to free every public employee in America from union bondage. Aaron is the author of the book Freedom is the Foundation: How we are defeating progressive tyranny by taking on the government unions. Aaron has been a featured speaker for the Freedom Foundation at a multitude of events, including the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2019. He was the proud recipient of the Oregon Taxpayer Association’s 2019 Thomas Jefferson Award. He was formerly on the Washington & Oregon Advisory Committees to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. And he is a member of the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Leadership Network. Aaron has often shared the Freedom Foundation’s message on TV, including appearances on Fox News, Fox Business, One America News, Newsmax, and The Huckabee Show on TBN. He has been featured on several national and local radio shows, including Sean Hannity and Lars Larson, and in print media outlets across the country, including the Wall Street Journal, the Hill, and the Daily Wire. He is a native of Birmingham, England, and is a graduate and former basketball player at Corban University in Oregon. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife Aubree and their daughter Amelia, as well as with their extended family and friends. He is active of his church and enjoys relaxing at several Pacific North West’s microbreweries. As an immigrant-turned-U.S. citizen, Aaron recognizes America as the freest and most prosperous country in the world. However, he also recognizes the very real threat posed by the government unions attacking the foundations of the American dream. This is what fuels Aaron as he now leads the Freedom Foundation’s national campaign to free every public employee in America from union bondage. Aaron has been a featured speaker for the Freedom Foundation at a multitude of events, including the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2019. He was the proud recipient of the Oregon Taxpayer Association’s 2019 Thomas Jefferson Award. He was formerly on the Washington & Oregon Advisory Committees to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. And he is a member of the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Leadership Network. Aaron has often shared the Freedom Foundation’s message on TV, including appearances Fox News, One America News, Newsmax, and The Huckabee Show on TBN. He has been featured on several national and local radio shows including Sean Hannity and Lars Larson and in print media outlets across the country including the Wall Street Journal and Daily Wire. He is a native of Birmingham, England, and is a graduate and former basketball player at Corban University in Oregon. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, staying active in many different sports and at the gym, he is active in his church and enjoys relaxing at several of the Pacific North West’s microbreweries.