Chicago, IL (April 22, 2010)<\/b> \u2013 With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, a group of home-based personal care providers today filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against Governor Pat Quinn and union officials for their efforts to force Illinois personal care providers under unwanted union boss control.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe suit stems from an executive order issued by disgraced former-Governor Rod Blagojevich shortly after his election, later codified, in which over 20,000 personal care providers who care for individuals with disabilities were designated as \u201cpublic employees\u201d of the state of Illinois for the purpose of granting Service Employees International Union (SEIU) bosses monopoly \u201crepresentation\u201d and forced dues privileges over them.\n<\/p>\n
\nFollowing the Rod Blagojevich blueprint of forced unionism, Quinn signed an executive order last June that made an additional 4,500 home-based personal care providers susceptible to unwanted union boss bargaining and political \u201crepresentation.\u201d Not coincidentally, Quinn received the SEIU union bosses\u2019 political endorsement and support during his recent closely-contested primary campaign for the Democratic nomination for Governor.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe additional 4,500 home-care providers who are not yet under union control soundly rejected union membership by a two-to-one margin in a mail-in vote. However, per Quinn\u2019s executive order, the home-care providers may again be subject to out-of-state SEIU and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union organizers making \u201chome visits\u201d attempting to organize the home-care providers through coercive \u201ccard check\u201d unionization tactics.\n<\/p>\n
\nPam Harris, Gordon Stiefel, and several other home-care providers — with assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation — filed the federal suit on behalf of all of Illinois\u2019s providers unionized by Blagojevich and on behalf of home-care providers threatened by forced unionism as a result of Quinn\u2019s executive order.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cMy primary concern is that someone else will be telling me how to best care for my son,\u201d said Harris, who provides personal care for her adult son and is the lead plaintiff in the suit. \u201cUnion dues would be a deduction from what we have available to provide for my son\u2019s needs. And then I would be giving my money to a union to exercise their political muscle on issues I may vehemently disagree with.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThe class-action suit challenges the forced-unionism scheme on the grounds that it violates the U.S. Constitution\u2019s guarantees of free political expression and association.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThis scheme is nothing more than pure political payback\u201d said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cIn effect Governor Quinn is picking the lobbyists of Illinois\u2019s personal care providers, all in exchange for the union bosses\u2019 support and political contributions.\u201d\n<\/p>\n