Union Chain Mail: A Card Check Cautionary Tale

IBD's Capital Hill ^ | 3/29/2010 | Sean Higgins

[Slyscribe]

Over at the Washington Examiner, Mark Hemingway highlights a case which shows just how the Employee Free Choice Act might work in practice if it were ever enacted. The act would make union organizing radically easier by replacing federally monitored elections with alternate methods, such as the following:

One day last fall, approximately 40,000 private day care owners in Michigan woke up to discover they had become members of a public sector union. Most had no idea what was coming.

Here’s how it happened: The United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees worked with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission to conduct a vote-by-mail union election.

Of the 40,000 day care workers in the state, only 6,000 responded

[muawiyah]

Wonder why no one thought to call a steward out for assistance ~

[hgro]

Ho Hum, just more UAW thuggery.

[cripplecreek]

They weren’t union members so they didn’t have a steward to call.

[stompk]

wow, that’s BS.

b@stards.

[cripplecreek]

The saddest part is the fact that the GOP introduced the bill that made them state employees for the express reason of forcing them into the union.

Keep an eye on your statehouses people. The infection is insidious.

GOP Senators, SEIU Taxpayer Giveaways, Campaign Cash and More, OH MY!

On Aug. 5, 2009, Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, introduced Senate Bill 731, which would give statutory cover to a scheme transferring approximately $6.6 million in taxpayer money annually to the SEIU government employee union, one of the parents of ACORN. This is accomplished by creating a shell government "employer" for some 42,000 individuals who are actually hired by elderly or disabled Medicaid recipients to provide personal care services in their homes. A Mackinac Center lawsuit is pending regarding a similar arrangement imposed on home day care providers.

Snip

passing the bill was part of a quid-pro-quo between Senate Republicans and the SEIU for union support of former state representative Mike Nofs in a November 2009 special election, which state Republican Party Chair Ron Weiser had characterized as among the party's top priorities. Day observes that the SEIU endorsed Nofs on August 22nd, two weeks after SB 731 was introduced, and sent four full-time workers to help on his campaign.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I thought that in Michigan the law would have automatically assumed you were in the union unless you sent back your card to opt-out