Here we go again.
The right-wing Freedom Foundation filed a lawsuit this month in Washington state’s Thurston County Superior Court seeking to overturn the county’s May 27 “face mask directive.” The order was issued to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus – and help residents and businesses get back to work safely, while also protecting their families and communities.
The lawsuit is just the latest bit of deviousness pulled from the Freedom Foundation’s bottomless, anti-worker bag of tricks. It clearly shows that the right-wing group is interested more in waging an ideological battle and less in protecting workers putting their lives on the line for their communities.
In the suit, the Freedom Foundation alleges that the mask edict – which requires people to wear masks in the presence of others indoors and outdoors – violates free speech rights and is an example of “virtue signaling.”
But this couldn’t be farther from the truth. As the directive itself says, requiring Thurston County residents to “wear face coverings in certain public places is reasonable and conducive to maintain health and to the control and prevention … of COVID-19.”
Fortunately, AFSCME members are too busy serving their communities in the wake of a global pandemic to pay attention to the Freedom Foundation and any of these anti-worker smokescreens.
In fact, if the Freedom Foundation name sounds familiar, it’s because this is the same billionaire-funded group that was behind the Janus v. AFSCME case in 2018, seeking to destroy workers’ rights and derail labor unions while taking away workers’ freedom to demand a voice on the job and a seat at the table in the workplace.
Yes, you heard that correctly: the same group that’s touting its concern for workers worked to destroy worker unions and is now working overtime to rebel against the life-saving recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
AFSCME members continue to serve their communities to keep our nation running. Here are some of the incredible stories of heroic work AFSCME members are doing.