While the public’s attention was diverted by impeachment proceedings and the international pandemic, the Freedom Foundation has remained hard at work educating public employees about their rights to stop paying union dues—and providing free legal assistance when the unions put up a fight.

During the first quarter, the Freedom Foundation filed three lawsuits in Washington against government unions for forging signatures on membership cards in order to take dues from public employee paychecks. To date, the Freedom Foundation has filed 12 forgery cases against public-sector unions in Washington, Oregon, and California, including an ongoing Washington case that was partially settled by the defending union for $28,000 in 2019.

Freedom Foundation’s outreach teams suspended in-person contact methods when cases of the coronavirus began spreading out of control. The teams are shifting to personal calls for the time being, to respect the social distance guidelines.

In March, the Freedom Foundation sent a letter to Washington Governor Jay Inslee calling for a three-month moratorium on government union dues deductions from public employee paychecks. Stopping union dues deductions for only that long would return nearly $60 million to the employees who earned it, allowing those dollars to be spent in the private sector and lighten the economic burden across Washington state.

Inslee has yet to respond.

In April, the Freedom Foundation won an important victory for taxpayers when the Washington State Supreme Court refused to hear arguments by the Seattle City Council which wanted to institute a city income tax, even though the state constitution clearly prohibits an income tax. The Freedom Foundation filed one of several later-consolidated lawsuits to stop the city.

As of March 5, 2020, the Freedom Foundation has assisted more than 70,000 government employees in leaving their unions.