A union-affiliated group is using scare tactics and lies about Washington Policy Center in an effort to collect money from the monthly benefit checks of public-sector retirees.

A recent fund-raising letter from Kandy Kraig, president of the union-backed Retired Public Employees Council of Washington (RPEC), is falsely claiming that WPC wants to “attack our pensions” and supports “cutting pensions in other states.”  Letter from Retired Public Employees Council

These irresponsible attacks are simply not true.  Washington Policy Center supports full funding for Washington’s pension obligations and has never recommended cutting pensions in other states.

Many retirees live on fixed incomes, so RPEC is simply playing on people’s fear by falsely claiming that monthly pension benefits will be cut.

RPEC is closely affiliated with the powerful AFSCME and AFL-CIO unions, among the most influential and well-funded political organizations in the state.

These unions are wealthy because, until recently, their paid membership was based on fear; state and local government workers had to pay the union every month or risk being fired.  WPC’s independent research and objective analysis helped inform the public about the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Janus v. AFSCME decision, which freed public-sector workers and their families from union coercion.

The court ruled in June that public-sector unions can no longer take forced union dues, so now they are using scare tactics in an effort to get workers and retirees to sign up with them.  What many retirees may not notice is that once they sign up, they cannot cancel their membership.

In small print, the RPEC requires:

• That RPEC’s dues will be taken out of a retiree’s monthly benefits;
• That monthly dues, which start at $7 a month, can be increased at any time;
• That RPEC will continue to take monthly dues indefinitely; only the union, not the retiree, can end deductions;
• That the state Department of Retirement Systems (DRS) is not permitted to intervene with RPEC or to provide retirees with information about union tactics.

Kandy Kraig and other powerful executives are angry because Washington Policy Center agrees with the Supreme Court and supports the basic right of state workers to leave a union and not be fired.

Now RPEC executives feel threatened by the idea that public employees and retirees can make independent choices and decide for themselves what groups they want to join.  For that reason they don’t want people to receive fact-based, independent research about public issues that are central to the lives of people in Washington state.

Washington Policy Center is an independent, non-profit research and educational organization devoted to public issues that are important to the people of our state.  We are funded entirely by voluntary contributions, nearly all of which come from in-state sources.

We will always respond and correct false attacks and misrepresentations about us.  We are not going to let highly-paid executives at RPEC, AFSCME, AFL-CIO or any other union silence us.

We will always stand for free expression, the respectful exchange of ideas, and the right of people to have access to fair, fact-based and independent information about public issues.