Chicago, IL (December 13, 2010)<\/b> \u2013 A group of home-based personal care providers have filed a federal appeal against Governor Pat Quinn and union officials for their agreement to force Illinois\u2019s home-based personal care providers under unwanted union boss control.<\/p>\n
With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, the personal care providers filed their appeal with the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals after a district court judge ruled against them.<\/p>\n
The appeal stems from a class-action lawsuit filed by the providers after Quinn signed an executive order designating 4,500 home-based personal care providers who care for individuals with disabilities as \u201cpublic employees\u201d and susceptible to unwanted union boss political \u201crepresentation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union bosses have been competing to force their monopoly control over the workers, even having out-of-state union organizers making \u201chome visits\u201d attempting to organize the providers through coercive \u201ccard check\u201d unionization tactics. Not coincidentally, Quinn received the SEIU union bosses\u2019 political endorsement and support during his closely-contested primary campaign earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Quinn\u2019s executive order mirrored one issued by disgraced former-Governor Rod Blagojevich, later codified, in which over 20,000 personal care providers were designated as state workers for the purpose of granting union bosses monopoly \u201crepresentation\u201d and forced dues privileges over them. Quinn\u2019s executive order expanded Blagojevich\u2019s to cover the additional 4,500 providers who were not included in the first executive order.<\/p>\n
In a mail-in vote, the providers soundly rejected union membership by a two-to-one margin. However, per Quinn\u2019s executive order, the home-care providers may again be subject to further forced unionization efforts.<\/p>\n
Pam Harris and several other home-care providers filed the federal suit on behalf of all of Illinois\u2019s providers, challenging the forced-unionism scheme on the grounds that it violates the U.S. Constitution\u2019s guarantees of free political expression and association.<\/p>\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<\/p>\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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chicago, IL (December 13, 2010)<\/b> \u2013 A group of home-based personal care providers have filed a federal appeal against Governor Pat Quinn and union officials for their agreement to force Illinois\u2019s home-based personal care providers under unwanted union boss control.<\/p>\n
With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, the personal care providers filed their appeal with the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals after a district court judge ruled against them.<\/p>\n
The appeal stems from a class-action lawsuit filed by the providers after Quinn signed an executive order designating 4,500 home-based personal care providers who care for individuals with disabilities as \u201cpublic employees\u201d and susceptible to unwanted union boss political \u201crepresentation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n