Aggressive outreach by the Freedom Foundation in New York State continues to pay off with record opt-out numbers among members of the New York Civil Service Employee Association (CSEA/AFSCME) Local 1000.
Although our efforts aren’t limited to CSEA, as the state’s largest government employee union, its members constitute the majority of the opt-out total – and generate most of the passion.
On April 17 alone, 30 members of CSEA opted out. For the week, the 81 CSEA members who left the union amounted to 60 percent of the monthly total, breaking both our weekly and monthly records.
Despite continued attempts to stifle dissent, CSEA members continue to sound off when we contact them. One former dues-paying member told us, “I wish I would have opted out years ago. I’ve worked with the county for over 30 years, and let me tell you, CSEA is a legal organized crime organization. The latest contract has been just wrong. They’re ineffective for the workers on the bottom.”
This member was so excited to have finally freed herself from CSEA’s abysmal representation that she volunteered to be an Opt-Out Ambassador at work, handing out Freedom Foundation literature to her coworkers. She said it was the least she could do for the next generation of public employees because they deserve to know their rights even if CSEA doesn’t want them to.
Another former dues-paying member told us that for 10 years he never needed CSEA, and now that he’s opted out with our help, he has more money in his pocket.
He also told us too many of his co-workers are afraid to rock the boat, even though they aren’t happy with CSEA, either. We he learned about being an Opt-Out Ambassador at work, he jumped at the opportunity, saying that he’d love to help fight back against CSEA and hand out literature to his co-workers about how they can start saving money like he did.
Another worker we followed up with told us she opted out because she wasn’t getting her money’s worth from CSEA, having failed her time and again. She happily informed us the opt-out letter she printed from our website worked great, and that CSEA was no longer taking dues from her pay.
In an email, yet another ex-member told us, “I decided to opt out of my union due to my increased disillusionment over the years as to the questionable political practices, etc., and unknown usage of my union dues. I wish I had opted out sooner, but at least I can enjoy the use of my own money from here on out. Thanks for reaching out!”
She, too, was ecstatic to learn about our Opt-Out Ambassador program and said she would happily spread the word to her co-workers.
Those comments and many more like them have made clear that CSEA has been failing its members on many levels, and for quite some time. Five years after the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in Janus v. AFSCME that government employees can’t be forced to join or pay dues to a labor union, CSEA is still leaving its members in the dark when it comes to their First Amendment rights.
The good news is, we’ve been working diligently to flip the script, and the more CSEA members we contact, the more we see opt out of union tyranny.
Moreover, we’ve uncovered a treasure trove of ex-CSEA members who want to go above and beyond by volunteering to be Opt-Out Ambassadors at work.
CSEA isn’t the only New York public-sector union whose members are voting with their feet, either. We’re seeing more opt-outs than ever before in New York, and the defectors have a lot so say about it as they head for the exits.
Stay tuned; as we continue to contact hundreds of thousands of public employees from the around the state in all sectors, New York’s warm spring will be turning into a scorching summer.
