Until unions fully comply with Janus, the fight will go on

Kudos to The News Tribune for correctly characterizing recent landmark legal decisions as clear setbacks for public-employee unions that feasted for generations on mandatory dues and/or agency fees.

These unions then metastasized into the dominant force in Washington state politics while growing complacent and disinterested in the legitimate workplace concerns of their conscripted members.

And thank you, too, for crediting the Olympia-based Freedom Foundation as the principal agent of these changes — not only in Washington but, increasingly, on the national level. We’re justifiably proud of our legacy.

But your Dec. 4 editorial, “The wait is over. No more compulsory public-employee union fees in Tacoma and beyond,” missed the mark in several other important respects.

Most notably, while the author(s) agree public employees should be fully and fairly informed of their newly affirmed rights under Janus v. AFSCME to opt out of union representation, they completely ignore the unions’ manifest hostility to the idea.

To avoid obeying the law, labor leaders have tried every trick at their disposal — from litigation, to creating and demanding passage of clearly unconstitutional legislation, to simply pleading ignorance. And don’t expect that to change anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the editorial writers seem to believe there is moral equivalency between a requirement that each new city hire attend a 30-minute union arm-twisting session and the “pressure tactics” employed by union critics — presumably a reference to the Freedom Foundation’s extensive (and entirely self-funded) outreach efforts to educate workers about their rights.

This is absurd.

Unlike the unions, which still maintain a strong — some would say stifling — presence in every government office and have countless not-so-subtle techniques for intimidating and ostracizing dissenters, the Freedom Foundation has neither the authority nor desire to impose its will on anyone.

Our only weapon is the truth about a worker’s rights, and despite unions’ best efforts to suppress it with the workers’ own dues dollars, we more than hold our own.

Notwithstanding the cheery tone of the editorial, however, the fight is far from over.

Tacoma should be commended for recognizing several important provisions of the Janus decision in its recently negotiated collective-bargaining agreements.

But it’s one thing to pass laws or issue Supreme Court rulings. It’s quite another to expect willing compliance from an entity that’s spent billions buying the loyalty of union-beholden lawmakers.

There have been numerous blockbuster legal decisions in recent years with the potential to curb the excesses of public-sector unions. Perhaps one day unions will be forced to devote more resources to advocating for wages, benefits and working conditions than they do to advancing a liberal political agenda.

Regardless, the takeaway is obvious: All the Freedom Foundation is working for is simple fairness. What the unions want isn’t, and they haven’t given up hoping they’ll never have to.

This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 1:53 PM with the headline "Until unions fully comply with Janus, the fight will go on."