Home Care Attendants Vote In Favor Of A Union
by Hugh McQuaid | Mar 29, 2012 3:24pm
(4) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Labor, Legal, State Capitol
SEIU District 1199 announced Thursday that home care attendants, one of two groups allowed to unionize under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s controversial executive orders, have voted by a wide margin to allow SEIU to represent them.
However, the bargaining unit does not yet have the opportunity to collectively bargain, so SEIU does not yet have any power to enter negotiations with the state on their behalf.
Through a mail-in ballot, the group voted 1,228 to 365 in favor of unionization, creating a new division of SEIU called CT Home Care United, according to a union press release.
The personal care attendants follow a group of daycare workers who voted in December for representation through CSEA/SEIU 2001. Both groups are paid in part by state funds through social service programs.
The SEIU press release heralded the vote as a victory for workers and employers.
Jennifer Brown, an attendant from Windsor, said unionization was a step in the right direction but the group still needs the right to collectively bargain with the state.
“I think it’s only fair that we have the same rights that millions of other workers have, but the right to bargain collectively has been denied us,” she said.
Last week two bills that could have given both groups a seat at the collective bargaining table died when the Labor Committee failed to raise them before its deadline. However, union officials said they’re hoping the concepts will be added to another bill before the session ends in May.
The governor’s executive orders have been controversial. Three lawsuits have been filed in Superior Court challenging the constitutionality of Malloy’s actions on the grounds that he overstepped the authority of his office.
Sen. Joseph Markley, R-Southington, a plaintiff in two of the lawsuits, said the vote to unionize was largely irrelevant given the lawsuits and status of the bills.
“It doesn’t mean much because this is an illegal process that still has no legislative approval,” he said.
Markley said the lawsuits have a good chance of rendering Malloy’s executive orders null and void and he doubted language allowing the groups to collectively bargain would pass the legislature this year.
Tags: home care attendants, SEIU District 1199, union, labor, connecticut, Joseph Markley, Malloy, Hugh McQuaid, dh
(4) Comments
posted by: wglomb | March 29, 2012 6:02pm
So about 15% of the eligible workers voted for the SEIU. How is that a wide favorable margin?
posted by: perturbed | March 29, 2012 8:17pm
Welcome to the big house, Jennifer Brown!
“Jennifer Brown, an attendant from Windsor, said unionization was a step in the right direction but the group still needs the right to collectively bargain with the state.”
So in that way, Jennifer, you’ll be just like all the state workers under the iron rule of the SEIU union bosses. We were denied the right to collectively bargain also—by our own union bosses! They bargained with the Malloy administration last year on their own while they kept us completely, absolutely locked out of the process. There’s no real collective bargaining when a half dozen union elite barter away your pension benefits to craft their own political deal with the state.
By the way, those are the same union bosses who will now take your union dues, Jennifer, and send them off to the huge, money-hungry national machine that is SEIU.
And those are the same union bosses that will fight tooth and nail to keep milking your dues money while they spend some of it to keep you locked up. Did you ever stop to read how the state and those greedy union bosses have joined forces to prevent state workers from choosing another more responsive, more honest, and more fair union to represent us? Yeah, they’re not above using your own dues money against you to keep you locked up tight in their clutches. That may happen eventually. But in the near term, your union dues will help fund the union boss bank of lawyers working against state workers’ rights. (Thanks.)
Outside Union Optimistic About Labor Petition
Objections Abound At Final UPSEU Hearing
It’s funny how the morally bankrupt union bosses can defend the democratic process when they stand a chance to rake in more union dues, but they’ll fight to the bitter end to prevent a democratic vote when they stand a chance to lose their cash cows.
You’re like lambs to the slaughter. (Nah, not really. They don’t want your life, just a cut of your wages.)
♫
“You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave…”♫
—perturbed
posted by: Stephen Mendelsohn | March 29, 2012 11:29pm
And on the very same day these ballots are counted, with 76.2% not voting, the Michigan legislature sends a bill to Governor Rick Snyder to end this very same scam (and other such stealth unionizations) in that state: http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/16704
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120327/OPINION01/203270315/1008/opinion01/Kill-sneaky-union-dues-gambit
Nearly $30 million in forced union dues later, Michigan’s sad experience with home care unionization under SEIU serves as a warning to Connecticut. The average home care wage for a unionized worker in Michigan (frequently someone caring for a disabled adult relative) is $9.55/hr with no benefits, and, on top of that, 2.5% union dues to SEIU. We have had much higher PCA wages in Connecticut BEFORE UNIONIZATION. Unions do not help PCAs!
posted by: perturbed | March 30, 2012 7:41pm
Thanks for the links, Stephen. That sounds exactly like the SEIU I know.
“In 2005, the SEIU targeted dollars that taxpayers provide to help so-called home health care workers. Through the Medicaid Home Help program, these were workers who cared for homebound patients who would otherwise need to be in nursing homes.
“The SEIU scheme, involving a dummy employer and a stealth election, was used to sign up the 43,729 so-called home health care workers into the SEIU. The majority of the 43,729 were relatives or friends of those given care.
“Once these people were unionized, the SEIU began collecting dues from their checks. The continuation of this dues flow is called the “home health care dues skim.” The number of alleged home health care workers has now grown to 60,190. The SEIU has netted more than $29 million in dues from the scheme so far.”
Here’s a 5-minute video that’s well worth a listen:
The SEIU in Michigan: Home Health Aides
“This video features Frank, a disabled adult with severe cerebral palsy and Judi, his home health aide, who’s outraged that government money that should be going to help Frank is instead going to the union she wishes to have no part of.”
Good luck ever getting out. You’ll soon find out you’re getting nothing—nothing—in return. They take a cut of your wages, nothing more, nothing less.
—perturbed