Posted on 06/27/2014 7:18:02 PM PDT by MichCapCon
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 of people who were being cared for mostly by friends and family.
The U.S. Supreme Court held oral arguments in the Harris v. Quinn case in January and a final ruling is expected by the end of June. There are reasons to believe the court’s decision in the case might be to reverse the 1977 Abood v. Detroit Board of Education ruling. If that's what happens it would have the effect of making all public employees nationwide subject to right-to-work.
Ramifications of such a ruling by the high court would be far-reaching.
"I think the reaction would be humongous," said Inside Michigan Politics founder Bill Ballenger. "It would be what happened in Wisconsin and Michigan combined, multiplied to the 10th power."
Dennis Darnoi, political consultant with Densar Consulting of Farmington Hills, said part of impact of the potential ruling would come from the lack of awareness about it within the regular news media.
"I think it would be one of those things that totally catches people off guard," Darnoi said. "Very few people would be clued in ahead of time. I think in the news media the reaction you would see would be like what we saw in reaction to Citizens United v. FEC (the 2010 decision that struck down the limits on campaign contributions). It would probably get a lot of focus from certain segments of the media and a lot of criticism. It would definitely be a shock to the system in ways similar to the fights (over labor issues) in Wisconsin and Michigan. Only on this one the attitude would be along the lines of: 'Look, they've taken all of it.' "
Robert Kolt, political strategist with Lansing-based Kolt Communications, said if the court decides to overturn the Abood ruling, the reaction of the unions could either dampen the resulting furor or fan the flames of it.
"Obviously it would be huge," Kolt said. "But a big factor would be how labor responds. If they make a big deal out it then the news media would tend to cover it more than if labor decided to play it down."
Mark Grebner of East Lansing-based Practical Political Consulting said the potential ruling would be a big deal, but from a long term perspective might not be all that unexpected.
"Ever since about 1980 the right-wingers have had a crusade to defund the left," Grebner said. "That's why they supported getting rid the tax deduction on contributions — it didn't affect large donors as much as small donors. I guess if the court makes this decision it would be one more step in that direction. I'm not sure how it would play out in the news media. A lot of people don't know very much about the inner workings of the whole union dues thing.
"Overall, it would dramatically undermine public sector unions," Grebner continued. "And we should mention that even though Michigan passed right-to-work, it would still have at least a small impact here because they exempted police and firefighters but this possible ruling wouldn't."
I hope the SCOTUS gets this one right.
What about the Hobby Lobby ruling? I haven’t seen anything on that issue yet .... did I miss it?
That will be on Monday also.
SCOTUS decided not to do a political Friday afternoon “hide the bad news” dump.
Yep, that's how it works both ways. The right uses the law, the left uses the IRS.
Yep, that's how it works both ways. The right uses the law, the left uses the IRS.
That would be a miracle
PLEASE let this rule AGAINST the rights stealing cartels!!!!
We can hope so!
Hoo boy. The unions have been betting on govt jobs to fund their operations ever since they sold the private ones out to let the jobs go overseas. They could be left unable to fund races across the country.
I worked with a public employee union for years and I can tell you they completely run some States and are aiming for a Federal takeover.
This is public employee unions. What they claim is that if someone disabled requires homecare, because the disability check comes from the gov’t, then the caregiver is a gov’t employee even if it is your mother. Therefore, the unions are entitled to their cut so they can give it to Democrats.
Oh yeah, I live in Michigan so I know all about it. I’m just pointing to the slow inevitable collapse of both public and private sector unions.
Watch Michigan in August. The teacher’s unions are going to be decimated when their August opt out date arrives. There are already some 10,000 teachers who simply quit paying dues.
That would be good news. Sometimes I think I should write about my years at the union. I was never a member, just did reporting for them. I was well paid so I stayed, but I really got an education!
Otherwise, the only union that the Constitution mentions is the Union of the States. Therefore, the Constitution's silence about labor unions means not only that such unions are not expressly protected by the Constitution, but also that only the states have the 10th Amendment-protected power to individually regulate intrastate unions.
Why do you fear unions? Have they hurt you? They are only 6% of private sector workers now...what harm can they do?
(my imitation a FReeper that posts here supporting unions)
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