NPRI spearheads nationwide campaign to let union members know how to exit their unions
LAS VEGAS — The Nevada Policy Research Institute is spearheading a campaign of 81 organizations in 45 states dedicated to letting employees know about the freedoms they have to leave their unions.
The campaign, called National Employee Freedom Week, runs from August 10 to 16. As part of it, NPRI released a poll showing that 82.8 percent of Nevadans support the concept of right-to-work.
The poll, with a sample size of 500 Nevada residents, asked this question: "Should employees have the right to decide, without force or penalty, whether to join or leave a labor union?"
The coalition also released a poll showing 82.8 percent of Americans nationwide support the right-to-work principle. As a right-to-work state, union membership is optional in Nevada, but once an employee joins, many find that the union restricts her or his right to leave — restricting departure to narrow and inconvenient “window” periods.
“All union employees should be able to make the decision about union membership that best fits them,” said Victor Joecks, NPRI’s executive vice president and executive director of NEFW. “As our polling shows, that’s a concept that the overwhelming majority of Nevadans support.
“All too often what happens is that, once they join, union members are never informed when or how they can leave, should they decide that membership isn’t for them.
“That’s why the work of National Employee Freedom Week is so important.
“NPRI and our 80 coalition members are empowering unionized employees around the country with the knowledge the unions don’t give them — and thus allowing these employees to make the decisions that are best for them.”
Working with the Association of American Educators, NPRI created National Employee Freedom Week in 2013 after it saw success informing Nevada teachers of their ability to opt-out of union membership. Over 1,450 Nevada teachers have left union membership as a result of NPRI’s yearly campaigns informing teachers of the July 1-to-15 drop window.
The inaugural edition of NEFW had 65 organizations in 37 states participate, and NPRI estimates that coalition members reached more than 4 million people in 2013.
The Nevada poll was conducted by Google Consumer Surveys, between July 14 – 20, 2014. It surveyed 500 people and has a margin of error of approximately 3.76 percent.
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Nevada Policy Research Institute ∙ 7130 Placid St., Las Vegas, NV 89119
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