{"id":13134,"date":"2014-07-01T00:20:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T07:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=13134"},"modified":"2014-07-01T00:20:49","modified_gmt":"2014-07-01T07:20:49","slug":"scrotus-screwed-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/01\/scrotus-screwed-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"SCROTUS Screwed Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Republican Party won a victory in their War on Workers, because the Fascist Five Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD) ruled against labor in Harris v. Quinn<\/em>.  They determined that it violates the free speech of home health care workers to have to either join a Union or pay a fee to a union for their collective bargaining representation.  In so doing they violated precedent and ignored the Constitution, because this an economic issue, not a speech issue.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"0701Workers\"<\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday dealt a setback to unions by ruling that in-home care workers in Illinois who are paid by the state are not similar enough to full-fledged government employees to be compelled to pay union dues.<\/p>\n

The case gathered national attention because it questioned the ability of unions to collect dues from public sector workers. The court said in-home care workers are not full-fledged public employees, thus narrowing the decision to these particular workers.<\/p>\n

The question stems from Harris v. Quinn, an Illinois case involving in-home care workers. Illinois and other states have long used Medicaid funds to pay their salaries to assist disabled adults who otherwise might have to be placed in state institutions. The jobs were poorly paid, and turnover was high.<\/p>\n

A Chicago chapter for the Service Employees International Union began organizing the workers and pushing the state for higher wages. In 2003, an executive order by then. Gov. Rod Blagojevich designated them as \u201cpublic employees,\u201d allowing the union to collectively bargain with the state over their benefits and wages. Gov. Pat Quinn later expanded the designation to include personal assistants in the state\u2019s disabilities program.<\/p>\n

In 2010, the National Right to Work Foundation, an anti-union advocacy group, sued Quinn and the union, accusing the state and union of conspiring to relabel private care providers so the union could collect union fees\u2026 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Chicago Tribune<\/a>><\/p>\n

Although the five goose-steppers claim that the decision is a narrow one, they lied.  It breaks new ground and sets a precedent that is sure to spawn future similar lawsuits.  Effectively this allows home health care workers to benefit from union representation for free, greatly reducing the incentive workers have to join the union.<\/font><\/p>\n

What the above article neglected, perhaps intentionally, to report is that the SEIU has done a damn fine job for home healthcare workers, increasing their wages<\/a> from $7.00 per hour in 2003 to $11.65 today to $13.00 later this year.  The point is, paying a small fee for so much more pay was a boon, not a hardship to workers who chose not to join the Union.<\/font><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll have more video coverage of this to post later this week, but the only response I could find that didn\u2019t goose-step comes from Oregon\u2019s SEIU Local 533.<\/font><\/p>\n