Americans for Lawful Unionism (ALU) is pursuing a decertification campaign for the Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) unionization of personal care attendants in Minnesota.
Personal care attendants were first unionized as state employees in 2014 in an election where only 13 percent of all caregivers voted for unionization. That approximately 3,600 person total is less than the 4,200 signatures for the decertification election that the ALU has already collected according to a fundraising letter. The ALU has raised almost $320,000 for the effort according to the letter, with $250,000 coming from out-of-state sources.
The exact number of signatures needed has yet to be determined. The ALU has begun the process of the decertification election by filing with the Bureau of Mediation Services which runs such elections, as well as with relevant courts. ALU estimates that the courts will require several thousand additional signatures in order to start the process.
Alpha News previously reported that Minnesota Personal Care Attendants (MNPCA), a coalition of in-home care providers for disabled persons, won a lawsuit against three agencies in the Dayton administration. Their successful suit won MNPCA access to up-to-date contact information for caregivers so that they could notify the members about the decertification campaign. The Center for the American Experiment estimates that 80 percent of PCAs are women caring for a family member.
“I don’t need a union to help me take care of my daughter,” said Kris Greene on an MNPCA pamphlet, “And I don’t need a union taking three percent of our money. Decertification is the only way to get the SEIU out of our homes and wallets.”
Shortly after being unionized, the State of Minnesota and SEIU signed a collective bargaining agreement, despite all benefits under the contract being funded by Congress and the legislature under Medicaid.
The Center for the American Experiment estimates the SEIU collects about $4.7 million in dues from PCAs in Minnesota. In 2016, the national SEIU donated over $1.36 million to individual congressional campaigns alone, all of it to Democrats, according to OpenSecrets.org. This includes $15,000 to Rep. Keith Ellison (CD5) and $10,029 to Rep. Rick Nolan (CD8) as well as $5,000 each to Rep. Betty McCollum (CD4) and Angie Craig (CD2.)
“It is wrong for Governor Dayton and his left-wing cohorts to foist a union on the family members of disabled children, parents or spouses in order to pay back their union supporters with dues paid with your taxes,” wrote ALU Board President Robin Kelleher in a fundraising letter, “These dollars will only be used to buy more left-wing legislators and governors since few actual services will be provided to PCAs.”
