Chicago Tribune: In-home care workers sue state, union
The following article appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Nov. 14th that mentioned SEIU Healthcare Illinois by name:
Union faces another lawsuit over organization of in-home care workers.
After a significant victory before the U.S. Supreme Court last year, an anti-union organization has stepped up its battle against organized labor in Illinois.
A handful of in-home care workers represented by the National Right to Work Legal Foundation on Tuesday sued state officials for compelling them to be represented by the Service Employees International Union.
The federal suit, filed in Chicago, named as defendants the union as well as Tom Tyrrell, director of the Department of Central Management Services, and Gregory Bassi, general counsel of the Department of Human Services. Bassi was acting director of the department. A representative for the state officials declined to comment.
A union spokesman said the foundation’s aim is “to weaken, if not totally destroy, every avenue for workers to have a voice on the job through a union.”
“Home care and child care workers united in SEIU Healthcare are proud of the gains won over several decades — from raising home care workers’ wages from $1 an hour to $13 and raising the rates for child care providers, to trainings that enhance the quality of care delivered,” James Muhammad said in a statement.
The plaintiffs say the union contract is a violation of their First Amendment right to choose who they want to lobby the government over public policies that may affect them.
“Home-based caregivers should not be forced to associate with a union they have no interest in joining or supporting,” Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Foundation, said in a statement.
The organization also used the First Amendment framework to attack mandatory union fees that home health care workers who didn’t want to join the union were required to pay SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas under Illinois law.
Illinois is one of more than two dozen states that require public-sector employees to pay partial dues, known as “agency fees,” for a union’s services, like negotiating contracts and addressing grievances, even if employees aren’t members. The law protects unions from free riders who gain the benefits of collective bargaining without paying for it.
In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in Harris v. Quinn that in-home care providers were not full-fledged public employees because they can be hired and fired by individual patients and work in private homes. As such the court determined that they shouldn’t be forced to pay union dues.
The home health care workers in the suit help persons with disabilities who are on Medicaid. Other plaintiffs in the case provide services to low-income children in a subsidized child care program. The plaintiffs are also represented by the Chicago-based Liberty Justice Center.
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