Posts tagged Freedom Foundation
Commentary: Nilesh Umapathy: SB 1296 is about accountability — not anti-unionism
April 9, 2026 // The PERC ruling shows what happens when someone pushes back — the union is forced to open its books and cover the member’s legal costs after it tried to silence them. Critics of SB 1296 will no doubt raise concerns, but most will miss the point. This is not an anti-union coalition. LaBedz herself is not anti-union. She is a member who was punished for exercising her rights. This is a coalition demanding accountability.
Op-ed: Blue States Are Insulating Unions From Debate
April 8, 2026 // My research shows that teachers and other public-employee unions have long been state-subsidized political actors. Beginning in the 1970s, many states adopted labor laws and bargaining arrangements that made it cheaper and easier for these unions to recruit members, collect dues and mobilize members in politics. Those policies gave unions a built-in advantage. Reform groups—including parent activists, school-choice advocates and the Freedom Foundation—must organize and compete from the outside. By contrast, public-sector unions operate from the inside, with advantages created by the state itself. For example, in most states, public-sector unions aren’t required to win re-election and instead get the privilege of representing all employees (even dissenters) year after year.
Democrats vs. the Freedom Foundation New York and Hawaii are copying a toxic union-protection law.
April 2, 2026 // The unions claim the Freedom Foundation is trying to trick workers into thinking the mailings come from the union. But the mailings all identify the foundation or its union educational outreach project in plain sight. Freedom Foundation’s Maxford Nelsen says it’s “very risky to continue our outreach efforts in the state,” and that’s the point. Democrats mean to discourage the think tank from dissuading workers from automatic union fees collection.
Is AEA in compliance with state payroll deduction law? National non-profit Freedom Foundation has doubts
March 5, 2026 // Over the last several weeks, representatives from the group whose mission is to “liberate public employees from political exploitation” have been in Alabama to introduce themselves to lawmakers and like-minded groups. One of the problems they’re ready to address is what they describe as a loophole or problem with the way the AEA uses money collected through payroll deductions for political purposes. “The loophole is the fact that paycheck protection, payroll deduction ban, whatever you want to call it, relies on the Alabama Education Association certifying that they do not take any portion of that money, dues, and use it for political fights. That is absolutely false,” Freedom Foundation's Rusty Brown told 1819 News in a phone interview.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis backs a new bill targeting unions; those who support him won’t be affected
March 3, 2026 // In 2023, the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 256, a measure designed to attack public sector unions by making it harder for them to collect dues, while simultaneously forcing them to show that at least 60% of their members were paying their dues. Any union that failed to meet that 60% threshold faced a decertification vote.
Taxpayer-backed teacher unions receive $390M in dues
February 19, 2026 // Since 2022, the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers have together contributed $43.5 million to political organizations, including The Trevor Project, according to a report by the nonprofit Defending Education.
Op-Ed: Contentious union politics eroding Washington’s classrooms
January 29, 2026 // Right now, the WEA, through its support of the Washington Families for Freedom coalition, is actively campaigning against two citizen-initiated measures to the Legislature filed by Let’s Go Washington. The first (IL26-001) would restore broader parental rights in public schools by repealing recent legislative changes to the original Parents' Bill of Rights. The other (IL26-638) seeks to protect fairness in girls’ athletics by requiring biological sex verification and barring students defined as biologically male from female competitions. Supporters turned in far more than the number signatures required to qualify for a spot on the ballot, 416,201 for IL26-001 and 445,187 for IL26-638, on Jan. 2. Reports of harassment and threats against signature-gatherers surfaced repeatedly during the process, yet overwhelming public support prevailed.
Editorial: Those Lying Teacher Unions
January 20, 2026 // A recent lawsuit against the Utah Education Association is a long-overdue gut punch to the smug, self-righteous teachers union machine that's been lying to its own members for years.
Op-ed: I Beat My Union in Court. Did Oregon Forget?
January 6, 2026 // Unions are bleeding members. Workers are exercising their rights by resigning, keeping their dues money in their own pockets instead of funding political causes with which they don’t agree. Instead of making themselves more appealing to workers, unions lobbied the state government to criminalize speech and the rank-and-file’s desire to exercise their freedom of association. Oregon says the Freedom Foundation’s mailings “confuse” workers. What’s most confusing is why a state would make it illegal to tell workers about their constitutional rights while allowing unions to send unlimited recruitment mail.
Oregon Punishes the Freedom Foundation
December 30, 2025 // The censorship is masked in the good-government language of fighting fraud, but don’t be fooled. The Workers Fraud Protection Act, which takes effect Jan. 1, makes it “unlawful to falsely impersonate a union representative” and imposes punitive fines. The law cites a definition of fraud that includes merely giving a “false impression” of union matters. The bill was written specifically to give unions a cudgel against the Freedom Foundation. The nonprofit sends mailers informing workers of their right to decline union representation. Unions say the Freedom Foundation misleads workers by using union colors and logos to make the mail seem as if it is coming from the union itself.