Labor unions are at it again, trying in yet another state to skim from government benefits intended for those who are sick and poor.
The reverse Robin Hood making this theft possible is Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat who won his 2014 election with robust support from organized labor. Wolf signed an executive order in February creating an opening for a union to represent all home care workers whose clients are subsidized by the state’s Medicaid program — whether they like it or not.
The union confers no benefits upon these workers, who are technically employed by the people they care for. They have no collective bargaining rights, as Wolf’s order acknowledges. In many cases, these are just people taking care of chronically ill family members who are Medicaid recipients. The only noteworthy consequence of union membership for most of these workers is that the union will get a piece of their Medicaid check in the form of dues.
Under state law, these caregivers are unambiguously not state employees, and therefore cannot be compelled to join a public-sector union through a state-ordered process. That didn’t stop Wolf, whose executive order is now on hold, pending a court challenge.
Under another state law (and under federal law), 30 percent of the workers would have had to sign a petition for the union election to occur. Wolf’s executive order bypassed this requirement, allowing an election if just 10 percent signed. And so the election occurred in April.
Even then, under still another state law, the United Homecare Workers union should have been required to win the votes of a majority of the roughly 20,000 subsidized home care workers in the state. Wolf’s executive order bypassed this requirement as well, allowing the union to take root if it had the support of a bare majority of those voting. And so unless the courts intervene, the union will get its hands on cold cash from 100 percent of these folks, having won support from only 13 percent of them.
In helping the unions skim from the poor and the taxpayer, Wolf is doing something that has been tried by many Democratic governors before him in various states. In Illinois, the practice led to the recent Supreme Court decision against the unions in Harris v. Quinn, but even now home care workers must request to be removed from the union’s rolls. In Michigan, former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm not only permitted such a scheme with caregivers but also let unions similarly skim from state childcare subsidies. Her Republican successor put a stop to both practices.
In Minnesota, a similar scheme is underway because Democrats passed a law designed to permit it before losing control of the state House in November. Gov. Mark Dayton, D, gave the SEIU final approval last month to start skimming benefit checks after an election in which less than 20 percent of the state’s subsidized caregivers participated.
With labor unions losing members and clout with each passing year, this is one method by which Democrats can cynically throw them a lifeline and pay back the people who got them elected. But how truly despicable it is to do this with money that has been earmarked by law for the poor. The courts have not smiled upon such practices in other states, and hopefully they will not do so in the Keystone State.
