Many Local 685 members received a glossy pamphlet in the mail from an organization called the “Freedom Foundation” suggesting that you could stop paying your monthly union dues.
Who is the “Freedom Foundation”?
Launched in 2013, the Freedom Foundation is an aggressive anti-worker organization, supporting anti-worker politicians and policies at the state and local level.
The national organization, which has set up shop in Orange County, has a multi-million budget with the specific goal of getting rid of unions like ours that have achieved a fair wage, affordable health care, and retirement security for members.
Who is funding the “Freedom Foundation”?
The Freedom Foundation receives millions from secretive dark-money groups with libertarian (i.e., anti-government) agendas.
Their major funders are connected to the Koch Brothers and other far-right groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
Read more here: http://whatisthefreedomfoundation.org
Why are they spending millions to get rid of our Union?
The billionaires behind the Freedom Foundation believe that private companies, both for profit and not-for-profit, should do the work that we do.
They have an army of “advocates” pushing the Board of Supervisors and the State Legislature to de-fund Probation and instead push our vital work to so-called “community-based organizations.”
These groups get County contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, hire minimum wage, non-union workers (e.g., low pay, minimal benefits, no pension, and no legal right to seniority or representation), and then give huge pay raises to their executives, many of whom make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year!
What should we do to save our jobs, pay, and benefits?
Ignore the Freedom Foundation and tell everyone you know to do the same. Don’t let them take away what we have fought so hard for.
That fact is that since 1969, Local 685 has successfully negotiated every new contract with the County of Los Angeles and effectively represented members in every aspect of dealing with the Department, and our record in Civil Service proceedings is unparalleled.
This is why they want to stop us and decertify our great Union!