WASHINGTON – Today, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a $12 million organization, launched a new national initiative — Workers for Opportunity — which will work alongside state and national allies, lawmakers, administrations and other stakeholders to advance workplace freedom for employees across the country. This bold initiative will drive meaningful and forward-thinking, post-Janus labor reform policies across the states, anchored by key objectives. The announcement coincides with the one-year anniversary of the oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Janus v. AFSCME that ultimately returned First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association to over five million public workers.

“Workers for Opportunity will ultimately seek to free the American workforce from all compulsion from labor relations, with restored rights to associate with, bargain with, and support whomever employees choose without fear of government retribution,” said Joe Lehman, the Center’s president. “Our goal is to reshape labor law by advancing the liberties of employees across the country, ensuring the recognition and protection of their constitutional rights.”

The Workers for Opportunity initiative, the first national effort of its kind to advance pro-worker labor reforms across the states, is anchored by four policy principles:

• Transparency and implementation of Janus rights: Even before the Janus decision, unions were working with lawmakers and administrations in certain states to make it more difficult for employees to exercise their rights. States should reexamine these policies to determine if any may be in violation of the Court’s expressed intent, which states that any collection of union dues or fees from an employee may only occur after the employee has provided clear and affirmative consent.
• Workers voting rights: Most public employees have not had an opportunity to vote on the union at their workplace. Public employees deserve worker voting rights to periodically vote on and certify which union has the privilege of representing their interests.
• Right-to-work: Public employees across the country can now choose whether or not to pay a union. However, in 23 states unions can still get private sector employees fired for not paying them. All workers deserve the same rights to decide whether to support a union.
• Public Employee Rights and Reauthorization Act: The Janus decision restored public employees’ First Amendment rights to choose whether to pay union dues and requires affirmative consent from employees before such dues can be collected. PERRA seeks to codify these rights from the Janus decision into state statute.

While the Mackinac Center remains committed to the mission of the My Pay My Say campaign and its efforts to inform all public employees across the country of their First Amendment rights, WFO represents a more expansive national initiative to house the work of My Pay My Say while additionally promoting meaningful and forward-thinking labor policy reforms across the country.

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