Free Republic

Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Harris v. Quinn case means that parents of disabled children, relatives and friends taking care of loved ones and child care providers can no longer be forced to financially support unions simply because they receive taxpayer-provided assistance. "I felt like doing back flips," said Sherry Loar, when asked her reaction to the high court's decision. Loar is the Petoskey child care provider, who in 2009 brought the first forced unionization of workers to the attention of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. "Trying to bring to light the fact that this is about...

ome health care workers in Minnesota are moving ahead with a union election, despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Union organizers presented a petition to state officials Tuesday. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that similar workers in Illinois don't have to pay any union dues. The 2013 Minnesota Legislature passed a bill that allows a unionization vote by workers who provide care to elderly and disabled people in their homes. Minnesota Public Radio News reports more than 26,000 workers are eligible to vote, and the 9,000 cards delivered to the state Bureau of Mediation Services exceeded the 30...

The United States Supreme Court said today that workers who indirectly receive state funds for taking care of the disabled or elderly cannot be forced to pay union dues. The Justices ruled 5-4 in favor of an Illinois mom and a group of Illinois personal care assistants who said their First Amendment rights of free speech and free association had been violated by a forced unionization. The case, Harris v. Quinn, was similar to a scheme in Michigan in which the Service Employees International Union took more than $34 million from the elderly and disabled who received Medicaid money from...

An audit of the state's Medicaid Home Help Program found that the state of Michigan improperly paid providers $146.4 million from Oct. 1, 2010 to February 28, 2013, the last 17 months of the home health care "dues skim." The audit also indicates strongly that various forms of fraud played a significant role in the overpayment. Because the time period covered by the audit took place before the April 2013 official end of the "dues skim,” the SEIU would have been enriched by the errors the audit brought to light. Based on a 2.5 percent take for dues and fees,...

Unions took $4 million from Michigan daycare workers; class action lawsuit now possible. Michigan daycare operators who had millions of dollars taken from them in a unionization scheme that has since been outlawed, may get some of their money back. On June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Harris v. Quinn that people who take care of others and are paid with funds that partially come from the state cannot be unionized because they are not state workers. It also opened the door for Michigan daycare workers involved in a previous, separate scheme to revisit a class action...

yesterday's decision in a key Illinois Supreme Court case has set off a first-class explosion in state and local government, potentially punching tens of billions of dollars in holes in their collective budgets. Some elements of the court's decision are drawing intense debate. But if the overnight consensus is anywhere near correct, everyone from City Hall and the Capitol to your local village and school board will have little option now but to dig deep, cut services and raise taxes a lot — and labor unions little incentive to compromise. "The law in Illinois is now crystal clear: Politicians cannot...

As the current term of the United States Supreme Court nears its end, a ruling remains to be announced that could fundamentally change the way government unions are organized. Harris v. Quinn, which involves personal care providers in Illinois who contested a forced unionization they were subjected to, is largely equivalent to the home health care "dues skim" that took place in Michigan. In both unionization schemes, workers who take care of the elderly and disabled were forced into a union. In Michigan, an affiliate of the Service Employees International union took more than $34 million from the Medicaid checks...

the state’s ability-to-function-in-a-modern-economy rate among graduates hovers at a dismal 37 percent. That is, according to the state Department of Education, only 37 of every 100 students who entered high school in 2009, and stayed long enough to graduate, learned enough by last June to do college-level academic work — or to enter the workforce in any meaningful way. And in New York City, the ratio was one in four. So let’s cut to the chase: If 75 percent of New York high-school seniors get diplomas, but only 37 percent are academically or economically functional ... Per-student spending — just...

Here’s a headline from Forbes that caught my eye: “IRS Employees Union Is ‘Very Concerned’ About Being Required To Enroll In Obamacare’s Health Insurance Exchange [1]” You can’t blame ’em. Workers in the private sector are also “very concerned” about getting dumped into Obamacare’s subsidized insurance exchanges as, one by one, employers are forced to give up providing health insurance for their employees.It’s possible that, like me, you are entertaining an un-Christian feeling of Schadenfreude about this happening to a large, widely loathed, and deeply politicized government agency.But thing thing that should really arrest your attention about this headline,...

Top GOP officials are concerned that missing among the IRS’s internal emails are communications with Sen. Mark Udall and a dozen other Democrats who received campaign contributions from the federal agency’s union. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) first issued Freedom of Information Act requests to the IRS last year seeking all electronic and written documents between top officials there and the Democrats who received the campaign funding, but the attempts have been repeatedly stonewalled. Udall has accepted $13,000 in donations from the National Treasury Employees Union that represents IRS employees ... This is just another instance of Mark Udall...

The Michigan Education Association is following through with its vow to threaten the credit of employees who don't voluntarily pay dues despite their desire to exercise their right under the law and leave the union. Bangor Public Schools kindergarten teacher Kimberle Byrd received a notice from a collection agency for unpaid dues in the amount of $394.20 with the Michigan Education Association listed as the creditor. Byrd said she thought she was out of the union when her union contract expired in 2013. The notice from the collection agency. A new contract with a tentative agreement for teachers in the...

The founder and chair of a group dedicated to reducing hospital infection deaths told the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Thursday that a bill backed by the Senate Wednesday to address the backlog of veterans awaiting medical care “is designed to protect union jobs, not ailing vets.” The bill drafted by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, “will not save the lives of vets stuck on the wait list,” said Dr. Betsy McCaughey, chair of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. “This bill as currently written is designed to protect union...

Having the right to leave a union doesn't mean much if union members don’t know how to get out. That could change if a request to the Michigan Employment Relations Commission from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy is approved. The Mackinac Center submitted a formal request to MERC that would require the state agency to establish a new rule that unions that represent public employees tell their members three weeks ahead of when they are eligible to opt out by use of a "resignation notification." "This is about common sense," said Patrick Wright, vice president of legal affairs at...

Brave elected officials and grassroots activists are fighting to make Missouri the 25th state in the country to give workers the freedom to choose whether they want to pay dues or fees to a union. For the first time in more than 35 years lawmakers in the Show-Me state are seriously considering right-to-work. In early April, right-to-work legislation won majority approval 78-68 in the Missouri House but failed to receive the 82 "yes" votes necessary to send the bill to the Senate. A simple majority of those present is needed for early approval of a bill, but to send legislation...

The Michigan Education Association has been an outspoken critic of school districts that privatize custodial services to save money. Yet, the MEA contracts out work with non-union companies for its own janitorial services. The state's largest teachers union had contracts with six companies in 2012-13, according to financial reports it filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. The MEA paid a total of $155,623 for janitorial services in 2012-13, the records show. The MEA paid the companies between $5,500 to $86,112. Michigan Capitol Confidential confirmed that the companies are not unionized. The MEA did not respond to a request seeking...

The Jeffco Public Schools Board school board tossed out a tentative deal with its teachers union during Thursday night’s board meeting. Board president Ken Witt said he could not endorse the deal because the agreement provided raises to an estimated 56 teachers who were rated “partly effective” on the district’s evaluation rubric. ... teachers union representatives were disappointed

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local's current legal director was disbarred from the practice of law over 20 years ago. Edward C. Chew III is the Executive Assistant to the President and Legal Director of UFCW 1776. Chew is also the Chairman of the UFCW Local 1776 Legal Trust Fund. The Supreme Court of New Jersey disbarred Chew from the practice of law “for the knowing misappropriation of client funds” in 1992. According to the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Review Board’s website, Chew remains ineligible to practice law in the state of Pennsylvania. Chew was admitted as a member of...

The Michigan Education Association could lose thousands of its members in August when the one-month window to leave the state's largest teachers union begins. Thousands of teachers already are withholding dues or fees from the union despite promises by the MEA that it will send debt collectors after those who don't sign up for automatic dues withdrawal. Patrick Wright, vice president of legal affairs for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said he thinks the MEA could lose as many as 10,000 members this year. Last week, Doug Pratt, the MEA's director of member and political engagement, told Michigan Public...

There probably aren't many Michigan teachers who are members of the National Education Association who have heard of America Votes. Or that money they pay in dues helps fund the left-leaning political organization. Yet, the NEA is a major supporter of America Votes, which came under national scrutiny this week after a report by The Center for Public Integrity portrayed it as a "secret liberal group" that was financing liberal causes. Michigan teachers who belong to the Michigan Education Association pay $180 a year to the NEA as part of their dues. America Votes is just one of the many...

Starting August 1, the left-wing Ohio newspaper, The Toledo Blade, intends to lay off about 130 of its unionized employees due to a permanent shutdown of its Toledo production center that handles printing and inserting. ... In 2013, The Blade lost $8.5 million and has been losing millions for years. As of now there are no plans that will affect the advertising and news-gathering departments. In 2012, The Toledo Blade urged it readers to re-elect President Obama, arguing in part that "He has dealt effectively with economic recession at home