Following nationwide attention on an unusual unionization method taking place in Michigan that attempted to turn private residents into public employees, the Senate today voted out of committee a bill sponsored by state Rep. Paul Opsommer, R-DeWitt that would halt the practice from taking place.
\nMedia outlets around the country interviewed people who had begun having public union dues taken out of checks they were receiving from the state to help them take care of their disabled children or elderly parents.
\nOpsommer’s bill ensures that people who receive subsidies or similar payments from the state cannot be inappropriately classified as a public employee simply because they accept the money.
\n“Not only are these people not public employees, many of them don’t even view taking care of their own disabled child in their own home as an official job at all,” said Opsommer. “All they are doing is cashing a governmental check, and the union dues being deducted from them just mean less money is getting to the disabled child or elderly adult it was intended for.”
\nThe media stories highlighted how with a stroke of a pen more than 40,000 people were turned into supposed public employees overnight.
\n“Imagine if every doctor that received Medicaid payments, every landlord that received housing assistance, every farmer that received a subsidy, or every homeowner who received heating assistance could automatically be classified as a public employee,” said Opsommer. “We would probably be more than tripling the size of government overnight.”
\nOpponents of the legislation believe that since a health care aide unionization vote has already taken place that it should be honored regardless of its validity, but Opsommer provided figures showing that most people didn’t even vote in the election because they were not aware of it or did not consider themselves public employees.
\n“As an analogy, if you live in Michigan, how much attention are you going to pay to someone sending you a postcard asking you to vote in an Ohio election?” Opsommer asked. “The vote that took place by a handful of private people to join a hypothetical public union carries no more legal standing then would Michigan residents sending in postcards for an Ohio election. The votes would not count, and while private employees are free to form private unions, private employees cannot be made public employees and forced to join a public union by special interests trying to waive a magic wand.”
\nOpsommer said that a so-called “interlocal agreement” had been entered into to try to skirt the law, but his bill would stop such practices as the contracts effectively form a fourth branch of state government that is unaccountable to the people and contrary to the State constitution.
\nThe bill, HB 4003, was previously passed out of the House chamber and now goes to the Senate floor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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