In the latest issue of the Federalist Society's Engage journal, National Right to Work Foundation attorney William Messenger discusses two lawsuits challenging schemes in Michigan and Illinois that force unionization on personal care providers and child care providers.
Two principal groups of individuals are currently being subjected to state-imposed representation. The first group is “Personal Care Providers,” who provide home personal care to disabled, chronically ill, or elderly individuals whose care is paid for by state self-directed home and community-based service (“HCBS”) programs established under Medicaid. This care generally includes assistance with daily living activities, such as dressing, grooming, and homemaking. Although the details of state HCBS programs vary, their core feature is that participants have discretion to hire, fire, and supervise their Personal Care Providers. The state subsidizes participants’ costs for hiring a Personal Care Provider and provides counseling to facilitate the process.
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The second group is “Childcare Providers,” who provide home childcare (i.e., daycare) services to parents whose childcare expenses are subsidized by state programs established under the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). Childcare Providers include independent contractors who operate daycare businesses from their homes, employees employed in parents’ homes, and relatives willing to watch their grandchildren or other related children in their homes. State programs generally permit participants to hire the private Childcare Provider of their choice, with the state’s role generally limited to paying some or all of their childcare costs.
As Messenger explains in the article, these forced unionism schemes infringe upon the First Amendment rights of compassionate care providers (including grandparents and babysitters) because they are being forced to support political speech and lobbying activities with no vital government interest.
In Michigan, 40,000 child care providers are now forced to pay union dues to joint venture of the United Auto Workers (UAW) and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) unions, and the scheme in Illinois forces approximately 20,000 personal care providers to pay fees to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). These schemes funnel millions of dollars into union coffers at the expense of the care recipients.
Hopefully, the federal courts will correct the gross injustice done to these tens of thousands of care providers, but these lawsuits have much wider implications. At least 15 other states have similar schemes, and union bosses are on the move to impose their representation on care providers nationwide.
Moreover, if these schemes are upheld, Messenger argues, "any individuals that receive monies from a government program, such as contractors with the government and recipients of Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, subsidized housing, and other government entitlements" could soon find themselves subjected to compulsory union representation.
Read the full article here.
Comments
The nurses at Newton
The nurses at Newton Memorial Hospital in NJ filed a decertification petition to have HPAE removed as their representative, The election in Oct 27th and 28th. HPAE was voted in by a very narrow margin last year, and no contract has been obtained. Nurses are very dissatisfied with the union.
Today the nurses at Newton
Today the nurses at Newton Memorial Hospital in Newton, NJ voted successfully to decertify HPAE as their bargaining representative by 157 to 104 votes.
newton memorial hospital
newton memorial hospital management ran a anti-union campaign of lies and deceit to win the decertification. Not only was the playing field lopsided by the hospital having round the clock anti union meetings without the ability of the union to come in and state the facts but the overstaffing on the floors to force nurses to attend sometimes multiple times was a tactic to tire the nurses of hearing about the union. The hospital should be ashamed at the bold faced lies they told to deceive their employees.
Newton memorial Hospital NJ
As a co-founder of the group NOVAdvocates and as the sole petitioner for the de-certification petition I assure you I had no support from Administration. I have worked under the suppression of unions in the past and do not need them to advocate for myself. During this whole union debacle the pro union nurses were the only ones who felt the right to voice their opinions freely and everyone else was 'wrong'. Shame on the union for their slanderous campaign and Ads that they ran.