NOTE: We sent the following message to state workers earlier today. Because of a technological hiccup, the body of the email was deleted for some users. We deeply regret any confusion or anxiety this may have caused.

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Late yesterday we learned that a Washington-based anti-worker group has requested and received the names, work location, and work email information for SEIU and AFSCME represented workers at the State of Oregon. We’re writing to you today to make sure you are aware of this development and what this group is really about.

As you likely already know, the Freedom Foundation is an extreme anti-public worker, anti-public services organization funded by the Koch network. They have made it clear that their sole goal is to “defund and destroy” unions. They regularly lobby against pro-worker legislation and seek to undermine PERS and even the minimum wage.

To that end, they have worked to obtain members’ personal contact information through public records requests and, earlier this year, by taking advantage of our union’s non-profit status. Now that those efforts have failed, they have resorted to having Sad Santas stand in front of large state worksites, and to trying to contact members via work email.

We have reached out to the Department of Administrative Services and the Governor’s office to encourage them to communicate directly with you about this group’s data request, and to think through policies about how state work emails should be allowed to be used by outside groups. Politics are not allowed through state email, so we would like the state to think through how that policy is upheld when political organizations request emails.

One thing is clear: SEIU members are united, and will stay united in the face of whatever comes, be it Supreme Court decisions or phony solicitations from anti-worker front groups. We know that standing together in union allows us to improve our wages, benefits, and the services we provide to Oregonians.