Union Dues Bid for Support by Illinois Democratic Governors Thwarted by U.S. Supreme Court

Taking a page from President Barack Obama’s governance by Executive Order, Governor Rod Blagojevich ordered the unionization of all home health care workers in 2003.

(No, I am wrong. Blagojevich may have provided an example for Obama to follow.)

The 2003 Executive Order was all about union dues.

I’m remembering 60-80,000 people involved.  (Tuesday, the Tribune said that the Illinois number was 20,000.)

$3.6 million in dues a year, the Court decision says.

The Service Employees International Union beat out the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Union to the honeypot

SIEU was Blagojevich’s largest contributor to his 2002 gubernatorial campaign.

While the Executive Order established the dues-paying relationship, the Democratic Party-controlled General Assembly codified it.

Obama has not been able to follow that example with the Republicans in control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The summary of the decision on what the Court calls”partial-public employees” or “quasi-public employees” of “simply private employees” is below:

Summary of U.S. Supreme Court concerning forced unionization of Illinois personal care assistants who are family members.

Summary of U.S. Supreme Court concerning forced unionization of Illinois personal care assistants who are family members.

The case makes a distinction between tradition state employees and those like home health care providers or personal assistants in which “the state is not acting in a traditional employer role” (p. 34). See below from pages 17 and 18 of the decision:
Supreme Court Harris pri v public 1Supreme Court Harris pri v public 2

The Supreme Court seems to be connecting the dual role of collective bargaining and political lobbying (when collective bargaining does not obtain what the unions want) with the pension cliff hanging over Illinois taxpayers, as you can see below:

The Illinois pension debacle even makes the Supreme Court decision in Harris v.Quinn.

The Illinois pension debacle even makes the Supreme Court decision in Harris v.Quinn.

The Supreme Court is interested in the narrowness of the legislative definition of home care workers as “employees” (on page 20):
Supreme Court Harris emp def

The Court points out the second, no, third class status of personal care assistants as so-called state employees:
Supreme Court Emp rts not providedAnd, there is more. They don’t get

  • vacation time
  • Health Savings Accounts
  • job sharing privileges
  • indemnification
  • sick leave bank
  • whistleblower protection
  • deferred compensation
  • behavioral health programs
  • flexible spending accounts
  • etc.

The Supreme Court again notes that collective bargaining is the only reason for defining these providers of home care as “state employees.”
Supreme Court Emp limited to collective bargaining
Footnote 10 explains the logic of the decision:
Supreme Court Harris footnote 10
All of this and much more led to this conclusion of the 39 page opinion:
Supreme Court Harris conc

= = = = =
Here’s commentary by Warner Todd Huston.

= = = = =
A reader challenged me with regard to my laying the blame on Democrats for passage of the “you are a state employee, but only for purposes of unionization” bill. He sent me the roll call links. You can see the roll calls below. There are three of them.

The first is the original House passage on April 4, 2003:

Local representatives voting against the bill:

Local representatives voting for the bill:  Tim Schmitz.  Voting against were Jack Franks and Rosemary Kurtz.  Now Congressman Randy Hultgren also voted, “No.”

Next, the State Senate amended the bill on May 29, 2003. Here is final passage in the Senate:

State Senator

State Senators Pam Althoff and Chris Lauzen voted for the bill.  Now Congressman Peter Roskam did, too.

Finally, on May 31, 2003, the House again voted on the changes that the State Senate made. No one voted against the bill.

Here is a description of what the State Senate passed and the House approved:

Amends the Disabled Persons Rehabilitation Act and the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act. Provides that, after the effective date of this amendatory Act, personal care attendants and personal assistants providing services under the Department of Human Services’ Home Services Program shall be considered to be public employees, and the State shall be considered to be their employer.

Provides that these provisions shall not be understood to limit the right of the persons receiving services to hire and fire personal care attendants and personal assistants or supervise them within the limitations set by the Home Services Program.

Provides that the State shall not be considered to be the employer of personal care attendants or personal assistants for purposes of vicarious liability in tort or for purposes of statutory retirement or health insurance benefits.

Provides that personal care attendants and personal assistants shall not be covered by the State Employees Group Insurance Act.

Provides that a labor organization recognized by Executive Order to represent personal care attendants or personal assistants shall be the exclusive representative of those individuals. [Emphasis added.]

Effective immediately.

No one voted against the changes made by the State Senate.

No one voted against the changes made by the State Senate.


Comments

Union Dues Bid for Support by Illinois Democratic Governors Thwarted by U.S. Supreme Court — 6 Comments

  1. **the Democratic Party-controlled General Assembly codified it.**

    Your partisan bias is astounding.

    Do me a favor and look back at the roll call.

    There were a total of 2 no votes – both in the Senate – on the measure to codify the bargaining rights.

    I guess the “Democratic Party-controlled General Assembly” is to blame for all the Republicans voting for it too?

  2. Tell me the bill number and the year it passed and I’ll post the roll calls.

  3. Dave: You must find the truth disturbing or you would not have made your comment.

    The FACT is that the General Assembly WAS Democrat controlled.

    Even if no one voted against the bill, the GA was still Dem controlled!

  4. Public sector unions: When there are negotiations between public sector unions and the taxpayer funded entity, the taxpayer is poorly represented or in many cases not represented at all (eg. many school boards consist of people who are relatives of union members or belong to a public sector union themselves).

    Most elected officials are fearful of being voted out of office if they do not support wage / benefit increases for public sector employees.

    Thereby the only recourse for taxpayers is to vote them out of office AFTER contracts are negotiated to increase wages / benefits.

    In the private sector there is a definite interest on the part of the employer to negotiate for contracts which can work within the profit margin of the company. In the public sector there is no such relationship.

    We need to work for the elimination of public sector unions.

    BTW There is very little union activity in Townships while unions are rampant in County and other Municipal government units.

  5. Oh look… Cal distorted what happened, again.

    The first House vote was on a shell bill, so that roll call is meaningless.

    Once again – only two people voted against the bill, both in the Senate. There was huge bipartisan support.

    Yes, the legislature was controlled by Democrats. But to make this a partisan issue completely distorts the reality of what happened.

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