Paycheck protection. For Union Members to discipline their unions by forcing the unions to hold a vote on whether spending is used politically or to withhold dues from political purposes. The overwhelming majority of Union Members would like to see that done. Polls consistently show that Union Members want their union to get consent before spending dues on Political Activities. 66 approved and 14 disapproved the statement that it was unreasonable that unions are allows to spend dues on politics without getting member approval. 79 of Union Members believe that employees should have the right not to participate in their unions Political Support of specific candidates or parties. Were here today with people who are actually working on these in very specific cases. Im going to introduce them and let them take it away. Victor joecks to my left serves as executive director of National Employee freedom week which is a coalition of 68 groups in 40 states dedicated to helping union mechls to learn about the freedoms they have to leave Union Membership. Victor is executive Vice President of the Nevada Policy Research institute and overseize the execution of npri Strategic Plan and policy initiatives. Victor holds bachelor degrees in history and math. Prior to joining npri he worked in communications in washington state. Next Rebecca Friedrichs has an Elementary School educator. She has been concerned about the policies and politics of the teachers union. She gained insider experience. She attended state didnteachers conferences. She knows that even Union Representatives have no real voice in Union Politics and can be bullied into silence if they disagree. Today shes the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit agattempting to return free speech and Free Association to the millions of Public Sector workers in the u. S. Her suit filed with nine other teachers and the Christian Educators Association is suing the National Education association, the California Teachers Association and ten local unions. They are at the ninth Circuit Court of appeals unless something changed since this was written. She teach teaches third and fou grades. Robert wiersema has 17 years as a fulltime Public Schoolteacher. He served as a member of a local Public School board of education for eight years, including two years as president. Rob left his union a year ago this month. He wants to help Union Members make informed decisions about membership. He has learned a great deal from his experience and he is going to share some of that today. Finally, Jennifer Parrish has led a coalition in minute someo minnesota that forced forced unionization of Home Childcare providers. Shes a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit. Shes challenging the constitutionality of compulsory unionism of childcare p propriders. Her legal efforts rument in limiting the power of government to intervene in private industry on behalf of special interests. In 2013, a Foundation Awarded her the Unsung Hero Award for her commitment to protect thing freedom and works tirelessly to change state and local policy for the better. Welcome our panel and i will hand it over to victor. [ applause ] thank you so much. Thank you to the Heritage Foundation for hosting this great event. Imagine talking with a friend and having them tell you, you know, for last five years i have been a fan of the Dallas Cowboys. But i dont really like the Dallas Cowboys. I would rather be a Washington Redskins fan. But i cant opt out of being a Dallas Cowboys fan. You would look at your friend and you would think he has a screw loose. Thats not how it works in america. We have the freedom both to join and leave associations, go to a different church, switch political parties, cancel a magazine subscription, even become a Washington Redskins fan. People do these things every day without even a Second Thought that they wouldnt have the ability to leave an organization they are dissatisfied with. Whether someone is rich or poor, young or old, we understand thissthis in almost every area of life except for one, labor Union Membership. In 2012, the Nevada Policy Research institute where i work, we ran a small Information Campaign letting teachers in the Las Vegas Area know they could leave Union Membership by submitting written notice between july 1 and july 15. The reaction was stunning. Teachers called us and said, i have been a teach are for years but i never knew i could leave my union until you told me. Others said, i always want to leave but because of the union put the opt out period in the middle of my summer vacation, i forget. The story of one teacher told us is note worthy. This teacher went to new teacher orientation, signed his union card without realizing he was signing up. He was signing a lot of paperwork and accidentally signed the union card. Because he was a motivated teacher, he decided im a member, i might as well get involved. He became a building rep for the union. It wasnt until we told him that Union Membership is optional that he was able to leave. And he gladly saved 770 a year by existing the on on. Nevada is a right to work state. Even a member a teacher who say member of Union Leadership didnt know they had the ability to leave their union until someone told them. That was stunning to us. Hundreds of teachers that summer wrote letters saying we want out. At the end of the summer membership decreaseed by over 800 teachers. If theres that many in one small state who want to leave their union, but they dont know they can or when and how to do so, how many hundreds of thousands or even millions of Union Members around the country want to do the same thing . So working with the association of american educators, we created whats called National Employee freedom week, which is a week dedicated to letting Union Members know about these freedoms. This event is a big part of nefw. It runs from august 10 to august 16. This week is National Employee freedom week. Im pleased to say that 81 organizations we have grown since i gave you that information. 81 organizations in 45 states have come together with the purpose of letting Union Members know that they have the ability to leave their union. In just a little bit you will hear from others and they will tell you their stories about leaving their union or fighting forced unionization. I want to talk about the numbers their stories represent. We decided to conduct a poll a National Poll of Union Members asking if you could opt out of your union without any penalty, would you do so . We surveyed 454 Union Members across the country. Over 28 said yes, i want to opt out of my union if i could do so without penalty. Theres 14. 5 million Union Members. Thats 4 Million People who want to leave. Whats amazing, they already can. If theyre in a right to work state, they can leave entirely. They dont need to pay agency fees. Even if they are in a nonright to work state, their options rnts as good, but they have options. They can become an agency fee payer and receive a rebate of their political spending. They can become a religious objector and redirect union dues from the union to a Charitable Organization that they find acceptable. We also wanted to ask the American Public what they thought. Should Union Members have this right . In a separate survey we asked, should Union Employees without force or penalty be able to opt out of Union Membership . 82. 9 of americans said yes. Workers should have that choice. They should have be able to make the decision about Union Membership thats best for them. We have 4 million americans who want out of their union. An overwhelming majority who support the right to make the decision thats best for them. Now we have National Employee freedom week. 81 organizations around the country telling Union Members when and how to leave and that they can leave. As you are going to hear, this is Information Union officials dont want their members to find out about. Thank you. Rebecca . Good afternoon. Thanks for having me here today. Id like you to imagine with me a little bit. Imagine that you finished your College Journey and you have entered your dream job. Upon accepting your offer, you are told that you have to join a labor union as a condition of your employment. You will pay 1,000 a year to an organization that claims to have your best interests in mind. While imagine that this union fights for almost everything in which you believe. They bad mouth the candidates for which you vote. They spend multiply millions defeating common sense propositions and things that you believe would actually improve your community. They even send out voter guides that reflect the exact opposite of almost every vote you personally cast but they claim that you agree with the unions stance on the issues and the candidates. Now imagine that your union is involved in local, state and national politics. They use your dues money to fund candidates that you oppose to become government officials. Now imagine that these Union Friendly government officials sit opposite your union at the bargaining table. They negotiate for the use of taxpayer dollars. But guess who is not invited. The taxpayer. Your union enters collective bargaining on your behalf, but they bargain against the taxpayers for things that are offensive to you personally. They constantly seek higher wages and sweeter defined benefit pension programs just for you. Every time you win, unfortunately, the taxpayers and the economy lose. Imagine that your state and nation fall deep into debt. Of course, you dont have to imagine that. And unfunded pension liabilities largely, because of sweet deals that were negotiated on your behalf. You watch helplessly as your money is used to defeat all that you hold true and right. Now, imagine you question your union on the use of your money. Thats fair. And you are bullied, you are shunned, you are treated with disdain. You dare to speak out against what they are doing. You are labeled radical right winger and you are spoken of in shameful terms. Imagine many of your colleagues are so intimidated that they simply sit in fear and they are afraid to speak up. Now i want you to imagine that you are against all of this. But you have to pay for it out of your own pocket. And you are continually associated with all of these behaviors on television commercials, in newspaper ads and simply through the tight ma title of your job. Your imaginary world is my reality. Welcome to the world of forced unionism. My first expierce with teachers unions was during my year as a student teacher in 1987. Every day i witnessed in horror as the neighboring teacher yelled at and belittled her adorable first graders, 6yearolds. They were terrified of her. There is no way that they could have learned in that environment. Nor should they have had to. When i asked my Master Teacher what could be done about this unjust and what i thought was a dangerous situation, she told me that because of tenure laws and strong union advocacy, districts had a hard time ridding themselves of abusive and incompetent teachers. So these kids didnt have much hope. That was the day that my Master Teacher educated me with the other problems within Public Sector unions. Unfortunately, the union impacted her career and my career and my classroom in ways that were and still are very troubling to me. For 26 years i have been this will be my 27th year of teaching. So for 26 years i have been forced to pay dues to a union whose core believes and Political Activities are in direct opposition to my own believes, my own morals and my political leanings. For example, although i am for vouchers and i believe that parents should have the right to choose their childrens education, my union dues are used to fight a parents right to choose. Although i am against tenure, against higher taxes, and ridiculously high pensions for Public Sector employees, my unions bargain for all of these things and more with my money. Currently in my state california, we have a 74 billion unfunded pension liability. Yet my union continues to bargain for deals that are harmful to our economy. Because of these issues and more, i opt out of the portion of my dues that the union admits are overtly political. I am called an agency fee payer. But unfortunately, i still pay for highly political collective bargaining against my will. I am not in a right to work state. Since the union controls teachers by controlling information, it was quite challenging to discover exactly how to opt out and even more how to receive my annual rebate of the political portion of my dues, which you would think would be automatic, but its not. Early in my career, i received a very tiny rebate. Thankfully, later i discovered california teachers empowerment network, c10. Its a Nonprofit Organization that exists to help teachers discould have are their rights within forced unionism. With c10s advice, i discovered how to opt out and how to receive my full annual rebate of the overtly political dues. When you opt out of Union Politics, you still have to pay 100 of the collective bargaining dues. Thats about 70 of the total dues. In exchange, you lose all rights of membership and you lose your Liability Insurance and you lose the right to vote within collective bargaining, even though you are paying 100 . The laws of Liability Insurance scares teachers so much that most will not opt out for that reason alone. Fortunately, c10 also taught me how to find Liability Insurance from an independent source. Today you heard about aae, American Association of educators. I chose Christian Educators Association international for my insurance. Thankfully, the coverage and service are far superior and my rebate more than covers the cost. My husband, who is a professor, was an agency fee payer for over 30 years before we discovered c10. Although his union, the california faculty association, accepted his fee payer status, they never once mentioned that he also needed to request a rebate of the dues that were used for overt politics. So for over 30 years, you guessed it, he paid full union dues funded full Union Politics against his will. The union was too happy to keep his money, even though he made it clear as a fee payer that he didnt want to support their politics. C10 taught both of us how to request our full rebates so now we both receive our rebates from our union. Since fee payers have no voice within collective bargaining, even though i will mention again we pay 100 of the collective bargaining dues, at one point i decided, well, im going to become a full union member so that i can have a voice within my local union. So i joined. I served for three years as a union site representative and as a local board member. I continually brought up the fact that many of my colleagues and i were disturbed and offended that our forced dues were being used toward politics and highly political collective bargaining that were against our codes and fiscal sensibilities. On every single occasion i was either ignored or i received this. Silence and shrugged shoulders. When i attended a conference, i asked my questions during seminars. Another brave soul asked the questions during a large gathering in a ball room. On every occasion we were answered with hateful tones. Rhetoric that made it very clear to everyone in the room that if you did not stand with Union Politics, you were a bigot. The room fell silence because of the intimidation