State lawmakers are on the verge of calling a halt to the questionable setup that has allowed the Service Employees International Union to extract nearly $30 million in dues from 40,000 Michigan providers of home health care since 2007.As I've stated about the unionization effort at the University of Michigan targeting graduate assistants, Big Labor doesn't care about them, they just want dues money from these students to further their political goals.
The issue may resurface as a ballot issue this fall, but what's important is to get this done now so that state policy is clear.
A Senate bill passed last week defines home health care providers as private workers, not public employees, immunizing them against being inducted into a government-worker union such as SEIU. The bill must be sent across the Capitol in Lansing to be reconciled with a similar House measure before Gov. Rick Snyder signs it into law, but at this point final approval is only a formality.
Meanwhile, an SEIU-backed group is circulating petitions in what's been characterized by some as a "Hail Mary" effort to write unionization of home health care workers indelibly into the constitution. By collecting at least 322,609 signatures, the circulators can get their proposed constitutional amendment on statewide ballots in the Nov. 6 general election.
All citizens have a right to petition for new laws. But using the constitutional amendment process as a vehicle to legitimize the umbrella organization under which home health workers were organized — the Michigan Quality Community Care Council — seems like a stretch.
Related posts:
Hey Big Labor: They're students, not workers
Union goonery against graduate assistants? Yep.
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