One year ago, on June 27, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a ruling that would change the country for the better, and open the floodgates to pro-freedom, pro-people reforms across the country. Since the Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME that upheld Americans’ First Amendment rights of free speech and free association, state think tanks have devoted themselves to educating government workers that they no longer must pay a union just so they may work.
We asked state think tanks to share some of their work and accomplishments from the past year with us, and here’s what they had to say.
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Arizona: Goldwater Institute
The Goldwater Institute is representing attorneys who object to being forced to join and pay a bar association as a condition of employment. They argue that the Supreme Court should end mandatory bar association fees, just as it recently ended mandatory public-sector union fees, which violated government workers’ rights for the same reasons in Janus v. AFSCME. Read more –>
Alaska: Alaska Policy Forum
Soon after the Janus decision, Alaska Policy Forum (APF) did a circuit on the major talk radio shows in Alaska to discuss the impact of the decision and begin informing workers of their First Amendment Rights. Working with experts from State Policy Network, APF was able to get two op-eds published that highlighted personal stories of two Alaskans who were freed by the Janus decision. Read more –>
California: California Policy Center
Over the last year, the California Policy Center (CPC) has partnered with several organizations to advance workplace freedom. Shortly after the Janus decision, Tommy Few, a special education teacher, reached out to CPC after United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) continued to collect union dues without his consent, even though he had resigned union membership. Read more –>
California: Pacific Legal Foundation
Pacific Legal Foundation is working to level the playing field in California by challenging SB 866, a California law designed to undercut Janus in the Golden State. Signed into law on the same day Janus was decided, SB 866 makes it illegal for public employers to talk about Janus with their employees. Read more –>
Connecticut: Yankee Institute
Immediately following the Janus decision, Yankee Institute launched the “CT Workers” initiative housed at CTWorkers.org. The site provides information and materials to educate state workers about their rights following the decision and a channel to connect with the Yankee team for additional help or questions. Read more –>
Florida: James Madison Institute
Even though Florida is a right-to-work state, James Madison Institute (JMI) has been engaged in worker freedom reform for the past several years. JMI submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of Mark Janus and attended oral arguments. In 2018, the Florida legislature passed a recertification bill for local teacher union bargaining units—local units must have 50 percent of the eligible members as paying members or that unit is required to hold a new certification election. Read more –>
Illinois: Illinois Policy Institute
Illinois has the third-highest number of union-represented government workers in the nation, and is a longstanding bastion of government union power. Over the last year, the Illinois Policy Institute engaged public sector employees across the state through direct mail, digital, and radio campaigns. Read more –>
Louisiana: Pelican Institute
The Pelican Institute for Public Policy has relentlessly pushed to advance workers’ free speech rights throughout Louisiana in several areas since the Janus decision. Pelican has coordinated with allied educational reform organizations throughout the state to better inform schoolteachers of their rights post Janus, as well as to offer to represent any schoolteachers who wish to exercise their First Amendment rights to leave union membership outside of restrictive opt-out windows. Read more –>
Maine: Maine Heritage Policy Center
The Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) has built and is preparing to launch a My Pay My Say Maine website to educate public sector employees of their rights under the Janus decision and to provide them with a pathway to opt out of union membership if they so choose. Read more –>
Michigan: Mackinac Center for Public Policy
The Mackinac Center’s national education and awareness campaign, My Pay My Say, informs and equips public employees with the resources needed to exercise their First Amendment rights under the Janus decision. Leveraging Mackinac’s unique capacity with VoteSpotter—a first-class data and digital campaign vehicle—Mackinac was prepared on the day of the Janus decision with targeted digital advertising, email and traditional mail, and a 24/7 call center to reach and engage with thousands of workers across the country. Read more –>
Minnesota: Center of the American Experiment
The Center of the American Experiment built the infrastructure that employees need to learn about their options if they want to leave the union (websites, segmented employee lists, outreach campaign), as well as a litigation capability (a new law firm, the Upper Midwest Law Center [UMLC], and partnership with Liberty Justice Center) that will assist the national effort to enforce and expand Janus Rights. Read more –>
New Jersey: Americans for Prosperity Foundation and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy
Americans for Prosperity Foundation and the Mackinac Center’s My Pay My Say–New Jersey awareness campaign have worked collaboratively to inform public employees across the state about their Janus rights and how they can be exercised. To date, this joint campaign has served over three million ads to New Jersey public employees, engaging with or directly supporting over 300,000 in their information gathering on how Janus impacts them or through the union resignation process on the My Pay My Say–New Jersey platform. Read more –>
New Mexico: Rio Grande Foundation
Alongside the New Mexico chapter of Americans for Prosperity and the Michigan-based Mackinac Center, the Rio Grande Foundation has launched a worker education website and campaign My Pay My Say — New Mexico. Read more –>
New York: Empire Center
The Empire Center developed an employer’s guidebook to help public employers talk to their workers about how they are affected by the Janus decision. The manual, written by respected labor attorney Jim Roemer, explains that public employers can and should share factual information with their employees about their rights. Read more –>
New York: New Choice New York
After the Janus decision last year, New Choice NY hit the ground running with an educational outreach plan for New York workers. The multi-faceted plan included emails, billboards, radio and digital advertising, and a door-knocking campaign targeted at 20,000 workers in two major cities in Upstate New York and office work locations in Albany. Read more –>
Ohio: The Buckeye Institute
Immediately following the Supreme Court’s landmark Janus decision, The Buckeye Institute launched its comprehensive and multi-pronged Workers Choose campaign to notify hundreds of thousands of public employees in Ohio of their newly-recognized Janus rights through direct mail and targeted online ads. The Buckeye Institute was not satisfied to stop there, but insisted upon asking the next big question in labor law, namely, “if it violates the First Amendment to compel financial support for union advocacy, how on earth can states require these same public employees to speak through unions that many of them choose not to join?” Read more –>
Pennsylvania: Americans for Fair Treatment
In 2018, Americans for Fair Treatment (AFFT) refocused heavily on post-Janus worker freedom. The goal of empowering public sector employees to make free decisions about workplace representation has remained the core of AFFT’s approach. However, the past year has only confirmed that advancing wins like Janus must involve a long-term strategy of equipping government workers to exercise all their union options. Read more –>
Pennsylvania: Commonwealth Foundation
Following the Janus ruling, the Commonwealth Foundation (CF) helped craft and introduce legislation to enforce the decision in Pennsylvania, a state with more than 300,000 government workers. Read more –>
Rhode Island: Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Shortly after the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity and its national partner, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy launched the My Pay My Say public employee awareness campaign, the state’s Governor, in seeking to shield public employees from becoming fully aware of their rights, issued a public directive for state agencies not to fulfill information requests for personal information of state employees. Read more –>
Virginia: National Right to Work Foundation
Brought by Illinois civil servant Mark Janus and argued at the Supreme Court by veteran National Right to Work Foundation attorney William Messenger, Janus v. AFSCME is a landmark victory built upon decades of cases won by the National Right to Work Foundation. The Foundation’s victory in Janus was a major blow to Big Labor’s power, but the fight to enforce that decision has just begun. Read more –>
Washington, Oregon, & California: Freedom Foundation
Freedom Foundation remains singularly focused on ending coerced union participation for public employees. In the year since Janus, Freedom Foundation has sent more than three million emails and one million direct mail pieces. Canvassers have visited nearly 30,000 homes and made more than 1,000 visits to almost 500 government office locations. Read more –>
Washington: Washington Policy Center
While lawmakers in Washington state work to deny public workers their Janus rights through anti-worker legislation, Washington Policy Center has launched a long-range, statewide, multi-media campaign to educate the public on the Janus decision and help public sector workers exercise their new Janus rights. Read more –>