One public employee at a time. I did a post here last year, regarding the Janus Supreme Court decision. That decision denied public employee unions the “Union Shop” that allowed industrial unions to gain power in the 1930s. That Union Shop required ALL employees of a company that unionized to become a member of the Union, and pay dues. The Supreme Court said in Janus that, since the public-employee Unions and their “employer”, the government, were essentially on the same side of the “bargaining” table, that they could NOT require public employees to join the Union as a condition of employment.

Given their extensive power, the public-employee unions, like the SEIU, the AFT and NEA (teachers), and AFSCME, strenuously objected to that ruling, and they promulgated onerous regulations that made it extremely difficult for employees to “opt out” of union membership. They also sued advocacy groups that attempted to contact entire groups of unionized employees with information on how to opt out, and won some cases. So, until now, there has been no united opposition to public-employee unions’ stranglehold on government employees.

I had an idea today that might help with that. I thought that elected and appointed Republican and Independent citizens could organize an effort, say a “Janus Project”, to contact individual public employees, outside of their workplaces, and assess their interest in opting out of union membership. The Project would have to be very quiet, and only speak to one employee at a time, giving them the information their union has been withholding from them, and urge them to consider opting out.

It would have to be “Each One Speak to One”, with project participants being very careful when approaching individual teachers or other government workers. If a teacher or health-care worker were to opt out of union membership, each opter-out could see if their own co-workers might be interested in opting out themselves. What would necessarily begin as a trickle, might turn into a brook, and into a river. Very gradually, the unions would have less and less dues money available to buy Democrats in state legislatures and Congress.

There is absolutely NO law against civilians, and ordinary citizens, speaking to individual government workers about their rights, and they all have equal First Amendment rights to “petition the government for redress of grievances” as is stated in the Constitution. I can’t think of any other way to diminish the power that the public-employee unions have over the entire government workforce. The President could, in one action, cancel the JFK Executive Order allowing public employees to unionize, but it is totally unrealistic to expect Congress to ever repeal the enabling legislation (Civil Service Reform Act of 1978). Too many members of Congress are financed by teachers unions to EVER give up that flood of campaign money.

If a Janus Project could gradually eat away at that dues money that practically entirely finances the Democrat Party, the citizens of America might just have a chance to take their country back. Without Public Employee Union money, Democrats would have a very hard time winning elections anywhere.

I would love reader comments on this idea. It seems to me that something has to be done, and this might just be the way.

ONE PUBLIC EMPLOYEE AT A TIME