Today, the Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece regarding Alaska’s fight against big government unions to effectively enforce the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision. The Freedom Foundation commends Gov. Dunleavy and the state of Alaska for appealing the terrible decision made by the Alaska Supreme Court in Alaska v. ASEA to overturn the governor’s executive action.
In 2019, the governor passed an administrative order, removing public employee unions from the dues authorization process. Instead, the state of Alaska took over management of the process to protect the First Amendment rights of government employees, ensuring these employees could leave their unions at any time without restriction.
The Alaska State Employees Association (ASEA) sued the state because it eliminated the union’s ability to force public employees to pay union dues even when an individual objected and wanted out. Specifically, unions in Alaska and across America have implemented arbitrary opt out windows. I like to compare these window schemes to the Eagles’ song Hotel California – “you can check in any time you like, but you can never leave.” Despite a record number of public employees fleeing their government unions thanks to the Freedom Foundation’s outreach efforts, these schemes are an impediment to many workers who often just give up trying to leave.
The Freedom Foundation is no stranger to his issue and has filed dozens of lawsuits to overturn the use of window period schemes as well as filed litigation to hold unions accountable for forging the signatures of public employees. We hope that the U.S. Supreme Court accepts Alaska’s appeal and ultimately sides with the state and the governor to expand worker freedom across America. To this end, the Freedom Foundation stands with Gov. Dunleavy and will be filing an Amicus brief in support of Alaska’s SCOTUS appeal.
In Freedom,
Aaron Withe
Chief Executive Officer
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