Issue
Workers' Rights
Your Voice, Your Dollars
If you work for a public school district, city hall, a state agency, another government body – or any other kind of local, state, or federal government entity – you have the right to decide whether you want to join a union at your workplace. If you decide union membership isn’t for you, then you are not obligated to pay the union at your workplace any kind of dues or fees, and you have the U.S. Supreme Court case Janus v. AFSCME to back you up on that.
The Liberty Justice Center represented Mark Janus all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect his right to spend his money how he wants. The decision to join or financially support a union is an important and deeply personal one for anyone who takes a government job. Before deciding whether union membership is right for you, it is important to know what’s at stake and what rights you have.
6 Janus Rights Government Workers Should Know
Our Cases Fighting For Workers' Rights
Our Fight in the News
The Chicago Teachers Union Sues Its Critics
By The Editorial Board | Aug. 23, 2026 (Wall Street Journal Opinions) It accuses a think tank of defamation. Yeah, that will help the children. The Chicago Teachers Union is deeply unpopular, but rather than engage in soul-searching, it has taken a page from Donald Trump and filed a defamation...
Op-Ed: AFT Target Funds Teachers’ Retirement
By Sara Albrecht | Aug. 19, 2026 (Wall Street Journal: Opinion) Randi Weingarten calls for a boycott of a company in which its members own millions of shares. ‘Target is OUT this back-to-school season,” Randi Weingarten declared on Facebook this week, urging teachers to spend their school-supply dollars elsewhere. In...
8 years after Janus, unions are still trying to keep workers in the dark
Aaron Withe | July 6, 2026 (The Hill) Last month, we marked eight years since the Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that public employees cannot be forced to pay union dues as a condition of keeping their jobs. Until then, those dues had been mandatory for millions of...
Unions still haven’t accepted Janus
Mark Janus | June 23, 2026 (Washington Examiner) On June 27, 2018, the Supreme Court decided Janus v. AFSCME, overturning Abood v. Detroit Board of Education and restoring First Amendment rights to millions of public-sector workers. The decision was simple but profound: Government employees cannot be forced to subsidize a...
NY unions put a target on my back — for helping their members escape
Aaron Withe | June 17, 2026 (New York Post) I run the organization New York is trying to shut down. A few days ago, at the tail end of its legislative session, Albany lawmakers passed a bill giving Attorney General Letitia James sweeping new powers to investigate and fine any...
A New York Bill Protects Unions, Not Workers
Aaron Withe | June 14, 2026 (Wall Street Journal) Regarding your editorial “A New York Union Protection Act” (Review & Outlook, June 9): I run the Freedom Foundation, the organization that New York is trying to shut down. Assembly Bill A10835A makes it illegal to “falsely impersonate” a union representative....