As educators protect students during the pandemic, far-right forces continue to campaign to weaken our union. Our collective strength will overcome these attacks, but we must stay vigilant and educate each other. Resources below.

The Post-Janus Launch

Cynicism runs deep in dark money-funded groups that want to dismantle unions across the U.S. It has been a part of their attacks on professional unions for years. For example, within hours of the controversial 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Janus vs. AFSCME — a case bankrolled by billionaires that overturned a former unanimous 40-year-old SCOTUS ruling — the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy took action. Using the campaign “My Pay My Say,” it flooded public school teachers’ inboxes and mailboxes nationwide advising them how to leave their unions.

Exploiting the “Right to Work”

Union members across the U.S. know “Right to Work” really means right to work for less money. Freedom Foundation is a Washington-based anti-worker organization funded by out-of-state billionaires who want to keep wages low, eliminate paid sick leave, and slash critical funding for education.

Once again, the foundation is harassing CTA members with deliberately misleading and outright false information in targeted direct mail campaigns. Their campaign against union professionals is now targeting our mail, email, phones, and Facebook pages.

Failing on a Grand Scale

Despite tens of millions in dark money contributions by billionaires, the foundation and affiliated groups have proven to be unsuccessful financial sinkholes for their donors; across the U.S. organized labor has had a resurgence in numbers and popularity.

Social Media Targets CTA Members

The Freedom Foundation has recently taken out Facebook ads aimed at all CTA members, urging them to drop their union membership. It hired 80 full-time employees and sent them to California, Oregon and Washington to encourage people to quit their unions.

These billionaire-funded attacks by an out-of-state organization will not deter CTA nor its members from our mission to serve students by ensuring properly funded schools, colleges, and universities in this state. The Mackinac Center, the Freedom Foundation, the Choice for Teachers, The California Teachers Empowerment Network, may all sound nice enough, but they aren’t. They may call themselves think tanks and operate as non-profits but the reality is that they are fronts for public education privatizers who want to weaken our union.

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If You See Something, Say Something

• Beware of emails, Facebook ads, and websites
• Research where the content is coming from.
• If you receive a strange email from one of these thinktanks, mark it as spam.
• Alert your CTA staff person to any drop campaigns targeting your chapter members.