At least two people were arrested Thursday evening at a joint Freedom Foundation and Cascade Policy Institute event in Vancouver, Wash.
The event featured Vinnie Vernuccio, a labor policy expert from Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy, discussing state labor reforms that empower workers to decide whether or not to participate in and support union organizations.
Those arrested were part of a group of pro-union, anti-worker protesters bent on preventing open dialogue. The Freedom Foundation welcomes anyone to attend our events and to ask civil questions. The protesters, too cowardly to engage in civilized debate, instead screamed at event organizers and attendees and even tried to prevent attendees from parking or entering the event room.
The protesters are right to be afraid. When surveyed, more than one-third of union members say they would leave their union if they could do so without repercussions. In states where union membership is voluntary, many workers reject unions as unrepresentative of their interests or simply not worthwhile.
The Freedom Foundation and our allies at Cascade Policy Institute and the Mackinac Center will never retreat, never surrender, in the face of such attempted bullying. We are thankful to the Vancouver Police Department for their response and to our attendees and supporters for their courage and dedication to open debate and to freedom.
[Reposted with permission from the Freedom Foundation blog]
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