By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – According to a 2012 survey, 33 percent of union members said they would relinquish their memberships if they could do so without losing their job or facing any other penalty.

Clearly, people want the freedom to decide if unions are right for them.

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But many labor unions, particularly teachers unions, make it difficult and confusing for members to opt out.

That’s why 55 nonpartisan groups from 34 different states have joined to together to help teachers make informed decisions about whether union membership is right for them, and to advise them on how and when they can leave their unions if they choose.

The organizations are trying to raise awareness of their cause during National Employee Freedom Week, which runs from June 23-29.

National Employee Freedom Week was created by the Association of American Educators and the Nevada Policy Research Institute, which gained notoriety for a 2012 campaign “to educate teachers in the country’s fifth largest school district about how to leave the Clark County Education Association, which resulted in the union exodus of 400 teachers,” Jenny White writes for the Heartland Institute.

Such an effort is sorely needed on a national scope, particularly considering the overly complex nature of opting out of the union in many states. Union members are often confused about their rights, and union leaders don’t go out of their way to help them understand that they have the power to walk away from organized labor.

“There are millions of union members around the country who aren’t able to make the decision about union membership that’s best for them, because they don’t know what options they have,” says Colin Sharkey, national director for National Employee Freedom Week.

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Part of the problem is that many teachers unions make it as difficult as possible for members to leave, and don’t publicize the necessary procedures for doing so.

In Nevada, for example, teachers can only drop their union membership during a two- week window each summer, and must do so every year or they’re automatically considered a member again, the Institute reports.

In California, teachers must resign their membership and request a rebate from the union for dues spent on the union’s political activities during a short time window, but must continue to pay non-member fees, Larry Sand, president of the California Teacher Empowerment Network, told the Institute.

“Teachers find they can be lonely as a union dissident and many teachers like to go along to get along,” Sand said.

Teachers are often intimidated into remaining loyal union members, Ginger Tinney, executive director of Professional Oklahoma Educators, a nonunion teachers association, told the Institute.

“Many teachers are afraid of the unions and will cower when confronted with union misinformation or when friends say they won’t talk to them anymore if they switch to (a nonunion option),” Tinney said.

Hopefully National Employee Freedom Week will encourage more teachers to consider what their union has done for them, how union actions have affected their local schools, and whether they agree with their union’s left-wing political agenda.

If enough of them answer those questions honestly, we should be seeing a large exodus of teachers who can’t get away from their unions quickly enough.