Posts tagged Caregivers
We’re Suing to Stop Unions from Stealing from Home Caregivers
August 4, 2025 // This isn’t the first time that Michigan caregivers have been targeted by unions seeking to skim dues off their stipends. Democrats put in place the same unjust policy in 2005, and the Service Employees International Union went on to take an estimated $34 million from home caregivers in just six years, before Republicans repealed it. But this time, caregivers like Tammy hopefully won’t have to wait for a change in power. The courts can protect them.
Opinion — Medicaid Is A Slush Fund For Labor And The Left
June 10, 2025 // Stripped of this Medicaid-funded, taxpayer-underwritten war chest and forced to support their failed candidates and causes solely through voluntary donations from people who actually agree with them, unions and their pet politicians would face an even bleaker future than the one already confronting them. The law has always intended for Medicaid payments to be made directly and in full to Medicaid providers, but government unions have figured out a way to use it as a slush fund for Left-wing politics. President Trump has the ability to end this scheme by implementing a rule change to uphold the integrity of federal Medicaid laws and stop the diversion of Medicaid funds to unions.
Home health care provider urges caution over SEIU petition
June 6, 2025 // Gloria Henry, the mother of a special needs child has a message for home health care providers now that a Service Employees International Union member showed up at her house. Anyone who is visited by an SEIU representative should be wary of what they are signing, Henry told Michigan Capitol Confidential. The union is collecting signatures to organize caregivers who care for their loved ones at home. The Legislature approved a law in fall 2024 that categorized home caretakers as government employees
Caregivers protest union effort to skim home helpers’ pay
April 30, 2025 // The SEIU quietly swept 60,000 home-based caregivers into its ranks in 2005, assisted by a mechanism established under Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Caregivers who did not consent to withdrawals saw the union take money from their paychecks in a practice the Mackinac Center for Public Policy dubbed a dues skim. Home caregivers enjoyed protection from the dues skim for 11 years after the state ended the practice. Last fall, lawmakers reestablished the legal mechanism by which the union could enroll caregivers as members and collect dues. It's not as easy for unions to take that money, however, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2016 Janus v. AFSCME ruling, which protects public sector employees from being required to join a union as a condition of employment.
Optum staff in New York vote to unionize
March 19, 2025 // Optum filed two objections March 4, requesting that the election results be set aside. NLRB documents the union shared with Becker’s shows the first objection is related to quorum. Optum argues that “given the absence of a quorum by the NLRB, regional directors do not have the authority to certify election results or investigate and adjudicate the employer’s objections under Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act.” The second objection argues that the NLRB limited Optum’s ability to share its opinion or arguments about unionization with employees during working hours. The union, on the other hand, accuses Optum of running an anti-union campaign.
‘We Are Hopeful’ Q&A with Patrice Onwuka and Kim Kavin
January 24, 2025 // Congress should consider enshrining the Trump-era definition for independent contractors, and/or consider ways to get ahead of the opposition to flexible work. The Employee Rights Act was a federal bill that, among many pro-worker provisions, sought to protect independent contractors as a counter to a national ABC Test in the now-defunct Protecting the Right to Organize Act. Portable benefits also provide a pathway for companies to provide independent contractors with workplace benefits without triggering a reclassification.
Oregon’s largest union rejoins labor federation AFL-CIO after two decades
November 29, 2024 // Nationally, SEIU and the Teamsters union split from AFL-CIO in 2005, citing disagreements over how to stem the decline in union membership and the AFL-CIO’s focus on national politics over labor organizing. The Oregon affiliate, SEIU 503, followed its national organization. SEIU members spent the past year, following 2023′s “summer of strikes,” talking about what they wanted out of the labor movement, which has grown and seen workers emboldened by a tight labor market push for higher wages and better benefits. One key theme was that they wanted to be in solidarity with other workers, SEIU 503 Executive Director Melissa Unger said.
Harris Pushes Gig Workers, Contractors into Corporate Jobs with New Rule
September 25, 2024 // America already has too few people working. If the employment rate were the same as it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, 2.9 million more people would be working today. The last thing Americans need is another regulation that makes it harder to make a living and to afford the rising cost of living. Although the Biden-Harris regulation has only been in effect since March, and it’s too early to fully study its effects, the employment-to-population ratio dropped by 0.3 percentage points between March and July. This decline represents a loss of 700,000 workers.
Return of union dues skim threatens home health workers
May 8, 2024 // With dues skim finally put to rest, home healthcare workers’ true feelings were made clear. In under a year, SEIU lost tens of thousands of members, shrinking from 55,265 to 10,918. By 2022, membership had fallen to 5,031, less than 10% of its membership at the height of dues skim. When given a choice, home healthcare providers fled the union in droves. Despite this, the Michigan Senate has since introduced SB 790-791, which would allow for the untimely return of the dues skim.
Some union workers at Sacred Heart are not participating in the strike
April 26, 2024 // Not all Sacred Heart healthcare union workers are participating in the current strike, according to hospital leadership. Wednesday marked the third day in an eight-day strike at Sacred Heart Medical Center. Workers are picketing in hopes of negotiating a new and improved contract from Providence, but not all union members have joined the strike. "We had several more than what is normal for a strike of this nature of current union caregivers who chose to come into the building and take care of patients," said Susan Stacey, Providence Inland Northwest's Chief Executive.