WATCH: Eight years later, quiet opt-out rules can’t stop millions saved in union dues

By Carleen Johnson
The Center Square

Saturday June 27 marks eight years since the landmark Janus v. AFSCME decision where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public employees have a right to join — or not join — a union.

Since then, millions of public employees have opted out of paying union dues, saving those workers tens of millions of dollars each year.

But according to Washington Policy Center’s Director of the Center for Healthcare and Worker Rights Elizabeth New, many employees still don’t understand they have an “opt out” option.

“A lot of workers still don’t know about this right. It isn’t included on required workplace posters about a worker’s rights. It’s not listed on a state website where other rights are listed,” said New in a Thursday interview with The Center Square.

“So, if your membership is truly voluntary, and we care about all workers’ rights, employees should receive neutral information about membership before a union gives them paperwork to sign up.”

WPC created a one-page resource that employers can download and give to workers in onboarding materials or hang in staff rooms.

“The 2018 Janus decision was a game changer. It means that union membership is entirely voluntary. You can be a union member and pay dues, and a lot of people enjoy doing that,” she said.

“You can choose to not be a member and not pay dues, and that’s really helpful for people, especially with ideological reasons to be against union membership.”

Olympia based Freedom Foundation, which created an opt out site to assist public workers in exiting their unions, reported last month they are on track for another record year.

“Overall, we have helped free more than 275,000 public employees from their union dues. To date, public-sector unions have lost an estimated $791 million in dues revenue,” wrote Freedom Foundation in a May 21, 2026, release.

Freedom Foundation CEO Aaron Withe told The Center Square back in December, they helped over 50,000 people opt out in 2025, and 5,000 of those workers were in Washington state.

“That’s a record-breaking year for the Freedom Foundation,” he said. “What it really means is over $40 million out of the hands of unions and their radical political agenda. It’s money that’s back in the pockets of workers and money that they can spend now on Christmas, on gas, on groceries, whatever it is that they need to.”

As unions across the country have lost hundreds of millions of dollars with employees opting out, some have created new ways of attempting to attract and retain those workers.

Several states have passed legislation to require public employers to give unions access to new employee orientations.

Freedom Foundation and other groups have lost legal challenges to have equal access to new employee orientations, so those workers could be educated about their rights to opt-out, to balance a high-pressure sales pitch from the union to sign up.

Another tactic used by union leadership has been to limit annual opt-out windows for employees, such that if they miss the opportunity, they are required to pay those dues until the next opt-out window opens.

As reported by The Center Square, Evergreen State educators have a narrow window that closes just before each new school year begins, to decide about union participation.

After that date, teachers can still opt out of union participation; however, their monthly dues will still be collected up through this time next year.

The Center Square reached out the Washington Education Association for comment on membership losses related to Janus, but received no response.

New said most public employees who choose to opt out of paying union dues have done so because they don’t agree with how those dues are being spent politically.

“A lot of people see the union politicking in ways that don’t align with them,” she said. “And so, seeing their money go to political purposes that they don’t agree with is what this whole case was about. Should they be forced to finance union speech that they disagree with? The Janus decision declared a First Amendment right for these people.”

Union dues vary greatly, but most Washington union members pay between $1,000 and $1,600 a year.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy reported in June 2023 that a little more than one in five government workers exercised their right to resign fully from their unions since the Janus ruling.

They estimated that “overall union revenue dropped by $733 million annually based on approximately 1.2 million government employees who chose to resign or decline union membership.”

Via email Friday, Freedom Foundation told The Center Square, 3,595 Washington workers have opted out of their unions in Washington so far this year.