AFT Calls It Deceptive When Workers Learn They Can Leave

Proposed Resolution 60 attacks organizations that tell public employees they can stop paying union dues. AFT describes these efforts as deceptive “opt-out” campaigns and promises legal, legislative, and organizing action to counter them.

The union’s preferred solution to unwanted membership appears to be making the exit harder to find.

There is a simple way to settle the issue. Require employees to affirmatively opt in to union membership and dues through a clear, regular, and direct process. Let the employer accept the employee’s decision electronically. Give workers the same convenience when leaving that they had when joining.

AFT opposes that kind of reform because genuine consent threatens automatic revenue. It would rather describe resignation information as harassment and portray workers who stop paying as tools of billionaires.

Notice the contradiction. AFT says educators are trained professionals whose voices must be respected on curriculum, politics, healthcare, and public policy. But when an educator decides the union no longer represents her values, she is suddenly too vulnerable to understand a mailer explaining her legal rights.

The union also complains that leaving weakens its bargaining power. That may be true, but it is not an argument against choice. A newspaper loses influence when subscribers cancel. A church loses resources when members stop giving. A business loses revenue when customers leave. None is entitled to keep charging people because cancellation would reduce institutional power.

If AFT provides value, members will knowingly choose it. If it cannot survive a straightforward opt-in system, the problem is not deception by outsiders. The problem is the union’s product.

Worker freedom includes the right to organize. It also includes the right to say no.