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“Caring for my son isn’t my job, it’s my life,” Tammy Martin, a Michigan caregiver, once said. “The state can’t just pretend I’m a government employee to justify handing me over to a union who doesn’t have any power to affect my rights.”
She was describing something Michigan has tried before. From 2005 to 2013, the state helped the SEIU pull union dues straight out of the Medicaid checks of home caregivers, most of them family members paid to look after a parent, spouse or child with a disability. The scheme collected more than $34 million before a legislative repeal and a decisive voter rejection ended it, and more than 44,000 caregivers left the union the moment they were free to do so. Last year, the state opened the same door again, reclassifying caregivers as public employees. When it came to a vote, just 13% of everyone eligible voted to unionize. The other 87%, 27,795 people, now answer to a union they never asked for.
A small fraction of eligible workers decided this outcome for everyone else, and most caregivers still don’t know what it means for them. Closing that information gap is central to the Mackinac Center’s work. We also partner with allies who share that goal, including the Freedom Foundation. On a rainy Saturday in September, Nicole Irrer and I were proud to join their canvassing effort in Grand Rapids, my hometown. Their team coached us on how to have real conversations at the door, and then we were off.
The Freedom Foundation’s full effort spanned 16 days, as 37 canvassers knocked on 7,248 doors across Lansing, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Detroit. Nearly every caregiver reached had already heard from the SEIU. Almost none of them could explain, in their own words, what they were being asked to sign, what it would cost them, or whether any of it was even optional. Everyone was grateful for the outreach — and Nicole and I were proud to be a part of it.
Standing in someone’s doorway, in the middle of their own life, has a way of putting a fight like this in perspective. These are not abstractions in a policy brief. They are people trying to figure out whether they can trust what they’ve been told about their own paycheck. Talking with them face to face reminded us why this work matters, and it is why we are so grateful that you keep us in this fight.
None of this happens without you. Thank you for standing alongside Michigan’s home health workers.
