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Michigan Senate bills would revive dues skim for home health workers

Government employees can opt out of unions, but Senate Bill 790 would make it much harder

… November 2006 and February 2013. The dues skim ended in March 2013, when the SEIU’s contract expired. “The checks mailed in March are expected to be the last … reported back then. The same day Hertel submitted Senate Bill 790, the SEIU announced plans to spend $200 million to re-elect President Joe Biden. …

Endnotes

… Bennett v. Council 31 of the AFSCME, AFL-CIO, 991 F.3d 724 (7th Cir. 2021); Fischer v Governor of N.J., 842 F. App’x 741 (3d Cir. 2021), Oliver v. SEIU Loc. 668, 830 F. App’x 76 (3d Cir. 2020), Belgau v. Inslee, 975 F.3d 940 (9th Cir. 2020). While these challenges to dues deductions have failed, they …

Can Whitmer council find a way to grow Michigan?

What we know so far about the council and who will serve on it

… Conservation Voters And of course, union representatives: Steve Claywell, the president of the Michigan Building Trades Council Ray Sholtz, the president of SEIU Michigan According to the executive order: “The Council’s membership should reflect the socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, cultural, gender, occupational, …

Michigan lawmakers have not tried to solve union ‘free rider’ problem

One in three bills in Michigan in 2023 has been labor-related. None try to solve a long-claimed problem. Why?

… employees. Why would lawmakers leave a glaring problem unaddressed? A 2018 memo on public policy priorities, co-authored by the AFSCME, AFT, NEA and SEIU labor unions, sheds light. The joint memo considers it counterproductive to solve the free-rider dilemma. In the eyes of the union, to leave free-riders …

Endnotes

… Priorities for Partner Unions” (AFSCME, AFT, NEA and SEIU), https://perma.cc/2D5M-NB7B. 24 Joseph G. Lehman, … Right-to-Work and the End of the 'Dues Skim' Killed the SEIU in Michigan” (Mackinac Center for Public Policy, … Jarrett Skorup, “Despite Collapse in Membership, SEIU Poised to Go All-In in Michigan” (Mackinac Center …

Antidote to coercion

… why union organizing falls by approximately 50% in states that adopt a right-to-work law.[35] [*] “HCF Inc. d/b/a Shawnee Manor and District 1199 SEIU, The Health Care and Social Service Union, AFL–CIO, Petitioner (Case 8–RC–15261),” (The National Labor Relations Board, Aug. 27, 1996), https://perma.cc/42RP-JF8X. …

Worker freedom and individual liberty

… as “dues skim” involving the SEIU.[28] The union worked with … government subsidies. The SEIU and Granholm administration … and forced to pay dues to the SEIU. These caregivers received … were not state employees, the SEIU launched a ballot initiative, … the union, workers fled the SEIU in droves. By 2020, SEIU Michigan …

Michigan home health workers would be protected from dues skim if right-to-work is repealed

Home health care workers are one group of people who would not be affected by right-to-work’s repeal

… to the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, in what is now known as a “dues skim.” The SEIU was permitted, during the administration of former … says, to learn that she won’t be forced to pay the SEIU, even if lawmakers repeal right-to-work. That’s …

Grading Michigan’s Labor Laws

… Supreme Court ruling, the nation’s four largest government unions — AFSCME, SEIU, NEA and AFT — have lost almost 219,000 union members. The Janus decision … brought by Pennsylvania government employees forced major unions — including SEIU, PSCOA, UFCW and AFSCME — to drop resignation restrictions from state contracts. …

We’ve Beaten Down the Union ‘Dues Skim’ in Michigan Again and Again

The Biden administration is trying to revive it for other states

… with their care. Last year, we were put into the SEIU without our knowledge. In our view, we are not … but parents to our children. We didn’t join the SEIU [but] we now pay monthly dues that are deducted … skim, more than 80% of home caregivers left the SEIU Healthcare Michigan union. The union convinced …

Labor Unions Are Not in a ‘Resurgence’

They’re at an all-time low in modern history

… of members. The Michigan Education Association is down 31%. Michigan Teamsters show a loss of 32%. The state AFSCME branch is down nearly 50%. And SEIU has lost almost two-thirds. A decline in manufacturing employment drives some of this loss. But over the past decade, several states began offering …

SEIU Healthcare Michigan is under trusteeship once again

Its second trusteeship in five years owes to ‘substantiated allegations of serious malpractice’

SEIU Healthcare Michigan is under a trusteeship for the second … The letter, available on SEIU’s website, says that new trustees … effective April 27. Their job, SEIU International President Mary … fund are not misappropriated. SEIU Healthcare Michigan was also … malpractice. In the early 2000s, SEIU locals across the country, …

Why We Need ‘Impact Journalism’

… journalism” when there’s a causal relationship between one or more news stories and a move in policy in our preferred direction. Examples include ending the SEIU dues skim against vulnerable people, changing a legacy media false narrative regarding then-Gov. Rick Snyder’s education budgets, ending corporate …

Medicaid Payments Should Go to Caregivers, Not to Unions

U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

… to unionize them. First, the SEIU lobbied the state to create … providers in Michigan. The SEIU then bargained with that “employer” … members — was redirected to the SEIU as dues. By 2012, the SEIU had successfully redirected … unionized. In less than a year, SEIU Health Care Michigan’s membership …

A National Leader

Mackinac Center’s Michael Reitz wins Overton award

… right-to-work state, secured historic pension reform, expanded educational options for students, eliminated wasteful corporate subsidies, killed the abhorrent SEIU dues skim in Michigan and ended Gov. Whitmer’s attempt to govern by emergency indefinitely. Working with these fine people — it’s the best job I ever …

New Department of Health and Human Services Rule Would Reinstate Dues Skim

Health care providers should be given a choice

… Michigan. Before 2012, the SEIU had quietly worked with the … care for. Despite this, the SEIU negotiated with the state agency … caregivers voted. By 2013, the SEIU had successfully diverted over … Michigan’s citizens also rejected an SEIU-backed attempt to enshrine … dues skim ended in Michigan, SEIU Healthcare Michigan’s membership …

Giving Missouri’s Workers A Choice

Missouri House of Representatives Economic Development Committee

… evidence. And a long line of Supreme Court cases makes clear that the waiver of a constitutional right does not continue in perpetuity. In Knox v. SEIU, the court affirmed that the factors influencing a party’s decision to support a union may change over time, and that a fresh opportunity to affirm …

Fighting the SEIU Dues Skim

… small amount of money through a federal program meant to help provide care for the disabled or those with special needs in their own homes. But to the SEIU, one of the largest unions in the country, all of this was just another way to make a buck. With the help of former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, it forced …

The Largest Public Sector Unions Have Lost Support Since Janus

At the two-year anniversary of the decision

… Education Association (NEA); and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Specifically, active workers contributing to these unions fell by 2.9% for the SEIU, 3.9% for the NEA, 6.2% for AFT and 7.8% for AFSCME. And the drop in union membership is even larger in states that do not have their own right-to-work …

National Right-to-Work

The Union Opt-Out Effort in Michigan and Across the Country

… left their organizations in droves. The Michigan Education Association has lost one-third of its membership. The state AFSCME branch is down 37%. The SEIU has lost more than 50%. Each state government employee union is down at least 15% in membership. And this is at a time of sustained job growth. Many …

Despite Collapse in Membership, SEIU Poised to Go All-In in Michigan

$150 million campaign blunted by right-to-work law

The SEIU is making a huge political investment to defeat President Donald Trump … members or paying fees to a union, SEIU Michigan has lost 51% of its members and SEIU Healthcare Michigan has lost 84% of … their unions. Since then, the national SEIU has lost 8% of its dues and fee payers, …

Mackinac Wins 2019 State Policy Network Award

… discovered that the Service Employees International Union was automatically deducting union dues from home-based caregivers’ Medicaid payments. The SEIU had unionized thousands of home health care workers, unbeknownst to them, and siphoned tens of millions of dollars into its coffers. The Mackinac Center …

Line 5 is a Textbook Example of Environmental Versus Labor Concerns

The debate has reinforced the blue-green divide

… “Blue-Green Divide.” For example, some unions — like the SEIU — appear to have put politics over the needs of … building trades union may be concerned, but the SEIU’s decision to put politics over the workers they … million on politics and lobbying. In contrast to the SEIU, the Michigan-based Operating Engineers Local 324 …

Endnotes

… 228 NLRB 1311, 1313 (1977). 37 1621 Route 22 W. Operating Co. LLC v. 1199 SEIU, No. 12-1031 (3rd Cir., March 14, 2018). 38 Shirlington Supermarket, Inc., … 5–6, https://perma.cc/EH6M-GFVR. 41 Ibid., 5. 42 Ibid. 43 Ibid., 6. 44 “SEIU Union Must Abandon ‘Card Check’ Union Organizing Drives in Pacific Northwest …

Problems with Decertification

… employee of Kaiser Permanente Northwest, told the House Education and the Workforce Committee that in July 2011 her workplace was organized by the SEIU via card check in less than two weeks. She said that she was never presented with a card.[71] Ivey and her colleagues then collected signatures for …

Corporate Campaigns

… targets.”[49] In 2011, the SEIU “Contract Campaign Manual” … Labor and Pensions how the SEIU ravaged his company through … would not capitulate to the SEIU’s demands for a neutrality agreement, … According to Bego’s testimony, an SEIU organizer told him, “Mr. Bego, … suit filed by PJS against the SEIU for their aggressive corporate …

Deception

… a neutrality agreement with SEIU prior to the union’s organizing … statement, Mayhew detailed how the SEIU hosted a question and answer … exclusive representation by SEIU,” she said. “We were told by … exclusive representation by the SEIU.”[41] When the union received … and other tactics used by the SEIU against Kaiser Permanente employees …

10 Years of Victories: The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation Celebrates … and Looks Forward

… Union was skimming dues from the governmental aid the Haynes received for watching over their own children instead of institutionalizing them. The SEIU unionized over 45,000 home-help providers. A Mackinac Center Legal Foundation lawsuit on behalf of the Pat Haynes, and Steve Glossop, who was providing …

Public Employees Should be Allowed to Exercise Their Rights

Some states still force workers to fight for their freedom

… The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) reported an 8 percent drop, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a 5.2 percent decline. These three unions, the largest public-sector unions in the nation, have witnessed a decline of some 279,000 workers. Conservatively …

By the Numbers: The Dues Skim

… Amount of money annually siphoned even after the dues skim was ruled unconstitutional 84% — Percentage of home care givers who opted to leave the SEIU once given a choice

Ending the 'Dues Skim' in Michigan

How the government was stopped from taking money from paychecks

… voted. That was enough for the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, to be named as the collective bargaining agent for providers. The Mackinac … about the scheme. The Legislature ended the funding to the council, so the SEIU started to finance it, even as the council’s director collected unemployment …

Michigan’s Laboratory for Liberty

Letter from the executive vice president

… supporters. We discovered this problem in Michigan in 2009. Our creative team gave it a name — “dues skim” — that is now universally used. We killed the SEIU skim in Michigan in 2013 and contributed to litigation that led to a favorable U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Still, the practice continued in nearly a …

By The Numbers

Workers for Opportunity

… the Mackinac Center is working with through Workers For Opportunity 8% — AFSCME national has experienced a 8% drop in total dues/fee payers 5.2% — SEIU national has experienced a 5.2% drop in members/fee payers 2.8% — National Education Association national has experienced a 2.8% drop in total dues/fee …

Dues Skimming Meets Its Demise

Federal rule ends a union's ability to involuntarily take money from home health care givers

… from the Legislature. Then the SEIU held an election, in which … that was enough to install SEIU Healthcare Michigan as the … the dues began flowing to the SEIU. By March 2012, a total of … legislation to end it. But still, the SEIU persisted, going so far as … payments and membership in SEIU Healthcare Michigan plummeted. …

Mackinac Center Applauds Federal Change Ending Dues Skimming

Unions can no longer skim an estimated $200 million in dues from home health care workers

… agencies to “unionize” home caregivers and skim money from their paychecks. The SEIU maintained that these were “public” employees for the purpose of unionization, … see a massive drop in revenue — 84% of home caregivers dropped out of the SEIU affiliate once given a choice. “Ever since the Mackinac Center learned …

A Steady Decline for Unions Under Michigan’s Right-to-Work Law

The birthplace of the modern labor movement finds workers increasingly opting out

… placed under the control of outside trustees. And the end of a dues scheme by which tens of thousands of home caregivers were forcibly unionized by the SEIU Healthcare has meant an astounding 84 percent membership loss. In June 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that all public sector …

Opt-in Requirement to Ensure Clear Consent

… home care providers in Minnesota reported that the SEIU forged their signatures for the purpose of authorizing … Substantial precedent supports these requirements: SEIU and AFSCME membership enrollment and political … University of California, https://perma.cc/2XX8-C2LU; SEIU Healthcare Florida Local 1991, https://perma.cc/WEY3-397G; …

Background

… enrollment resulting from Supreme Court rulings, labor unions began an aggressive campaign to enroll more dues-paying members. In some cases, unions like SEIU have reportedly resorted to forging signatures on membership forms.[5] The amount of union deductions skimmed by state governments from family child …

Even After Right-to-Work, Unions Still Big Political Spenders in Michigan

… This data comes from state and federal campaign spending reports. The SEIU’s affiliated super PAC, United We Can, made almost $1.3 million in independent … the Michigan Democratic Party and $68,000 to Gov. Whitmer’s campaign. The SEIU Michigan State Council made a $25,000 contribution to Gov. Whitmer’s campaign. …

Right-To-Work Repeal Bill Denies Government Workers’ Civil Rights

Michigan Dem’s legislation appears to defy US Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus ruling

… of Michigan's government unions have seen double-digit declines in fee-paying employees. For example, the Michigan State Employees Association and SEIU Local 517M saw 20 percent drops. Among other things, declining revenue affects the union’s ability to engage in political activism. Economist James …

How Right-to-Work Affected Michigan’s State Employee Unions

See the status of five of the state's top unions

… is a union for state police officers, who were exempted from the law.) These unions are the Michigan State Employees Association, UAW Local 6000, SEIU 517, AFSCME Council 25 and the Michigan Corrections Officers. Here is a look at the percentage of workers choosing to remain members of these unions …

Even After Right-to-Work, Unions Still Big Political Spenders in Michigan

Organized labor gave millions to Democratic candidates and groups in 2018

… This data comes from state and federal campaign spending filings. The SEIU’s affiliated super PAC, United We Can, made almost $1.3 million in independent … board elections, state board of regent races and judicial elections. The SEIU Michigan State Council made a $25,000 contribution to Gov. Whitmer’s campaign. …

Public Sector Unions’ Mixed Fortunes After Michigan Right-To-Work Law

Too soon to tell how much U.S. Supreme Court’s extension of RTW to public sector nationwide will affect union finances

… Others, including the Michigan State Employees Association (MSEA) and the SEIU Local 517M, have seen declines of 20 percent or more. The number of workers paying fees to MSEA fell by 345, from 3,079 to 2,734. SEIU Local 517M decreased by 782 individuals, going from 3,532 to 2,750. Before …

Teachers Union Could Face Millions In Clawback Payments To Workers

Federal class-action lawsuit contends compulsory fee payments violated government workers' free speech

… across the country to stop withholding union fees from the paychecks of people who had opted out of dues payments, if they had been doing so.  The SEIU settled the lawsuit for $2,200 with an Oregon woman who had claimed the union had violated her constitutional rights by taking money from her even …

Victory for Mark Janus

How the Mackinac Center's years advancing worker freedom in Michigan have paid off across the country

… Capitol. A couple of months later, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Knox v. SEIU, and the majority opinion in that case — decided in June 2012 — included … Michigan and make collective bargaining agreements trump state law. The SEIU, whose efforts to take money from home health aides in a dues-skim operation …

Medicaid Dues Skim May Come To An End, After All

Friends, relatives of disabled individuals among those swept into public sector unions

… Department of Community Health ended a contract with the SEIU that had been established during the term of former … from Medicaid checks to union coffers, usually the SEIU or the American Federation of State, County and … “According to a report by the U.S. Department of Labor, SEIU Healthcare Michigan’s membership fell from 55,265 …

Detroit Council Calls For $15 Minimum Wage; Many City Workers Get Less

Statement ‘strongly encourages downtown developers’ to pay a living wage

… pay at least $15 an hour, the city government is still posting jobs paying less than that. The union behind the local minimum wage campaign is the SEIU, which a week earlier organized a rally that was attended by Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones. The resolution reads in part, “The Detroit …

Recent Corruption Scandals Involving Some of Michigan’s Largest Unions

Embezzlement, financial malpractice plague unions

… of Electrical Workers Local 876 was convicted of embezzling more than $300,000 from the union. She was sentenced to four years in federal prison. SEIU Healthcare Michigan was placed under an emergency trusteeship in 2017 by its parent organization after allegations of financial malpractice came to …

A Look at Unions in Michigan, Five Years After Right-to-Work

Most of state’s largest unions have seen a collapse in members and political spending

… primarily by six different unions:  the MSEA, MCO, SEIU Local 517, Troopers Association, AFSCME Council … 2016 has plummeted from $844,766 to $319,766. SEIU Michigan is composed mostly of private sector health … the state are up 38,400 jobs (about 7 percent). SEIU Healthcare Michigan, which was composed almost …

Mackinac Center Legal Foundation

… Sherry Loar is a home daycare provider in Petoskey, Michigan. With the Legal Foundation’s help, she managed to fight and win her case against the SEIU. Read her story. < 1 / 3 > “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing you guys were there, and I was not fighting this battle …