Posts tagged opt-out
Commentary: Are Unions Rising from the Political Grave?
September 21, 2026 // Here again, however, there may be less than meets the eye. Despite its surprising bipartisan support, the FLCA would raise significant constitutional questions if enacted. By relying on a government-mandated arbitration panel to resolve labor disputes, the law effectively empowers the state to impose contractual terms on private parties—a form of what constitutional lawyers call “state action.” As attorneys Alex MacDonald and Vinnie Vernuccio observe: “[S]tate action opens the door to a slew of constitutional requirements and restrictions, notably to protect rights of free speech and association.”
Ignored by Her Union: LA County Homecare Provider Speaks Out
September 21, 2026 // Dallas, TX — In a video released today by the Freedom Foundation, Shequita Chamberlain, an in-home healthcare provider for her mother, exposes how SEIU 2015 has trapped her in union membership despite never joining, and has continually ignored her requests to opt-out. Chamberlain has been trying to leave SEIU 2015 since 2021. She has sent four certified letters, called repeatedly, emailed, and even showed up in-person at SEIU 2015’s headquarters—only to be turned away under supposed COVID protocols.
New York’s union bosses just invented a new way to silence their critics
September 17, 2026 // But read past the press release and you find the real target: the state attorney general now has subpoena power and can seek $1,000 per violation against any person or group, in state or out, whose mailers about a worker's right to leave a union get labeled "impersonation." Unions get their own private right to sue on top of that. I've spent three decades in regulated finance, and I know what an uncapped $1,000-per-item liability schedule does to an organization's willingness to speak. It doesn't punish fraud. It punishes volume.
Teacher unions dedicate money to political activism, lobbying
August 18, 2026 // In 2025, the NEA spent a total of $448,171,192, according to Union Facts, a nonprofit that focuses on transparency and accountability. AFT spent a total of $278,261,430. The NEA spent more than $51 million on political activities and lobbying in 2025, and the AFT spent more than $41 million, according to Union Facts. In comparison, the national average salary for a public school teacher is $74,000, according to the NEA.
Louisiana Teachers Head Back to School With a Right They Didn’t Have Last Year
August 11, 2026 // Act 756 took effect August 1. It gives teachers and other school employees a clear, enforceable path to stop union dues from being deducted from their wages — and puts the burden on the union, not the employee, to prove that path was ever explained. Act 756 doesn’t ban union dues. It doesn’t ban unions. It doesn’t stop a single teacher from joining one. What it does is make sure the decision to pay — or to stop paying — genuinely belongs to the employee.
Illinois Federation of Teachers educators aren’t getting what they’re paying for
August 5, 2026 // Less than 28% of IFT’s spending in 2025 was on representing teachers, according to the union’s annual report filed with the U.S. Labor Department. The rest was on politics, overhead and other union leadership priorities.
Clark County Education Association Refuses Teacher’ Certified Opt Out Requests Again
August 2, 2026 // For the second year in a row, the Clark County Education Association has refused certified mail containing membership cancellation requests from the very teachers it claims to represent. CCEA already restricts resignations to a narrow annual window during the middle of summer break, from July 1 through July 15. That barrier makes leaving the union unnecessarily difficult. But CCEA has gone further. During its own designated window, the union has refused to accept properly delivered correspondence from teachers who want out.
Op-ed: You can’t legislate member loyalty
July 23, 2026 // Oregon State House Bill 3789, which last year made it illegal to “impersonate” a union, created new restrictions and legal risks to communicating with union-represented workers. The Freedom Foundation maintains that the law was designed to suppress effective outreach and has challenged it on constitutional grounds.
Calif. In-Home Workers Accuse Unions of Coerced Dues, Shakedowns
July 15, 2026 // May, 39, received training to become a home worker through Medicare’s In-Home Support Services, or IHSS, to care for her then-infant. In the summer of 2023, as a mandatory part of her training, she attended an IHSS orientation. May was expecting to learn about the program’s rules, payroll procedures, and her legal responsibilities for compliance. Instead, she says that 75% of the orientation was devoted to pressuring her to join the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union. At the end of the presentation, May said a representative from the Service Employees International Union local 2015 locked the doors of the orientation room and told attendees that “no one is leaving until everyone signs” a union membership card.
Op-ed: Union transparency rules are only as strong as their enforcement
July 12, 2026 // Only after Ormond and Bilodeau sued their unions to compel them to follow the law did the agency finally start doing some of that “paperwork.” Last month, the department sent public-sector unions in the state a notice reminding them to follow the law, and it created an apparently new online portal for them to file the required financial reports. The department’s official guidance also said that unions must provide employees with hard copies of the reports and hold a meeting to discuss them.