Marathon Pundit: Unions pick the pockets of public-aid recipients

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Unions pick the pockets of public-aid recipients

Dues mean money for unions. With money unions can buy influence with campaign contributions to politicicians. Public officials control welfare.

James Sherk explains why this is a big problem in the Washington Times.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, but the union movement has taken this saying to a new level. It has reacted to dwindling membership by unionizing recipients of public assistance. In more than a dozen states, unions now extract dues from government benefit checks.

The latest example is Minnesota. The legislature just passed a law unionizing day-care providers at the behest of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Employees of large day-care centers could already unionize. This bill applies to self-employed day-care providers, many of whom run day-care centers out of their homes.

Self-employed workers don't normally unionize. What could a union do, demand that someone pay himself more? Have its members strike against themselves? A union of one makes little sense.

However, Minnesota funds a Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) that subsidizes day-care costs for low-income families. The legislature just defined day-care providers receiving CCAP payments as state employees — but only for the purpose of collective bargaining. This will let AFSCME form a giant statewide union of at-home day-care center operators.