U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon Highlights Our Worker Freedom Campaign

A growing number of public employees in the United States are learning something their union never told them: They have a constitutional right not to join a union or pay for the political causes it promotes. The Mackinac Center’s national My Pay, My Say campaign exists to make sure workers understand that right — and to give them the tools they need to exercise it.

That message recently received a major national boost when U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon released a video telling public school teachers about their right to resign from a union. The video promoted the Mackinac Center and the My Pay, My Say website. McMahon underscored the core principle behind our campaign: Workers should never be forced to fund political advocacy.

The recognition quickly translated into results. McMahon’s endorsement drove nearly 30,000 people to the website. About 3,500 visitors downloaded optout forms to resign from their union. In just a few days, unions lost $2.8 million in annual dues.

The Mackinac Center then amplified the message through a targeted digital campaign aimed primarily at teachers across the country. The results were striking. Roughly 300,000 people saw the advertising campaign. Tens of thousands clicked through, and more than a thousand commented on or shared the video.

These efforts continue to help government employees exercise their rights under the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court Janus ruling that public employees cannot be forced to join or fund unions, which are private political groups. Since that decision, public sector unions have lost more than $4.6 billion in revenue, including $895 million in the past year alone, as workers learn that they can say no to the union.

The Mackinac Center is also taking the campaign into states long dominated by organized labor, including California, Illinois, Ohio, and, of course, Michigan. All told, more than one out of every four government workers around the nation have resigned from union membership.