Oregon Freedom Foundation anticipates a push by public sector union bosses to shield their members’ contact information from public records requests— a direct result of Freedom Foundation’s overwhelmingly successful outreach campaign to public sector employees.

As one of Oregon’s biggest public sector unions and political spenders, Service Employees International Union Local 503 (SEIU 503) has been a particular focus of the Freedom Foundation since the organization expanded into Oregon in 2015.

Since the Janus v. AFSCME decision in 2018, SEIU 503 members have received hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail, emails, and texts, as well as visits to homes and government buildings—all with the purpose of educating them about their First Amendment rights to leave their union.

This outreach had a big impact. Payroll data Freedom Foundation obtained through public records requests revealed a whopping 33 percent of state employees and more than 40 percent of homecare providers represented by SEIU 503 have exercised their right to opt out of union dues within the first year of Janus.

In their 2019 LM-2 report, SEIU 503 collected over $2 million less in members’ dues from their 2018 report, and their political spending dropped by more than 60 percent.