Posted on 12/20/2009 4:36:17 AM PST by reaganaut1
The barren economy of this rustbelt state is weakening the labor movement, but well-connected unions continue to shape Michigan's politics. So it's not surprising that some are willing to take extraordinary measures to help repopulate union ranks--even to the extent of making the state an accessory to a scheme to shanghai more than 40,000 home-based day care entrepreneurs and providers into a government-employee union.
This development was first brought to the attention of the Mackinac -Center for Public Policy, where we work, in early 2009, when the center was approached by Sherry Loar, owner of Baby Steps Childcare Center in Petoskey. She told us that though she operated the business in her home, the Michigan Department of Human Services was forcing her to pay "dues" to a government-employee union she had never heard of.
Loar's story seemed outrageous. Could a private business owner--an employer--really be considered a public-union member? It turned out that not only Loar, but also thousands like her, are to have an estimated total of $3.7 million withdrawn from their pay and diverted to union coffers each year. Worse, the Michigan Department of Human Services is withholding the dues without authorization of state law.
The bizarre unionization drive appears to have begun in 2006, when the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees joined together to form a new union, Child Care Providers Together Michigan (CCPTM). The intent, according to union documents, was to organize all the home-based child care providers in the state.
The CCPTM, however, faced a challenge. With tens of thousands of home-based day care providers scattered across Michigan, who would act as the "employer" for the union to organize against?
In April 2006, the CCPTM sought to organize against the Michigan Department of Human Services ...
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Why not? Unionizing people has worked out so well for industry in michigan hasn’t it?
We can kill unions by forcing them to collect their own dues. The funny thing is that the Detroit democrat mayor is the one who brought me around to thinking that way. He’s being sued for refusing to deduct union dues from some city worker’s paychecks.
Force the unions to start passing the hat around to collect their own dues and a guarantee they’ll start to disintegrate.
And, then, they ask why the cost of health care is going up.
Sherry should get out of the business and take up pet sitting in other people’s homes
Just as profitable, fewer hours, and not unionized- yet
Nope.
They BLAME it on someone else!
This has been going on for decades.
Create a problem and blame others then create a bigger problem with a fix and then blames others and repeat the cycle again and again.
Unions will be toast across the USA soon anyway.
After all, who needs unions in a Communist state?
It is after all somewhat redundant.
Why not? Unionizing people has worked out so well for industry in michigan hasn’t it?
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Also my first thought!
Yes and that is what Obamacare is all about-taking over the health care industry and unionizing all of those who work in that industry.
Unions are the shock troops of the State.
Michigan ping
If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
Just making sure you’ve seen this one too, mombyprofession.
None of my Michigan lib-dem friends are politically astute. Not a one. Zip, zero, nada.
| Michigan Forces Business Owners Into Public Sector Unions |
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12/26/2009 4:23:11 AM PST · by radar101 · 58 replies · 1,409+ views WSJ online ^ | DEC 26, 2009 | PATRICK J. WRIGHT AND MICHAEL D. JAHRMichelle Berry runs a private day-care service from her home on the outskirts of this city, the birthplace of General Motors. "The Berry Patch," as she calls the service, features overstuffed purple gorillas, giant cartoon murals, and a playroom covered in Astroturf. Her clients are mostly low-income parents who need child care to keep their jobs in a city that now has a 26% unemployment rate. Ms. Berry owns her own business—yet the Michigan Department of Human Services claims she is a government employee and union member. The agency thus withholds union dues from the child-care subsidies it sends to... |
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