Minn. parents ask Supreme Court to kill exclusive union representation from SEIU
Most people would probably pass up the opportunity to steal $25. They reason that stealing $25 is no way to get rich. What they fail to see is that it isn’t the quality ($25) that counts. It’s the quantity ($25 x 10,000 x 12) that counts. Twenty-five dollars is chickenfeed, until it is done on an industrial scale. Welcome to union representation.
BY: Bill McMorris
December 16, 2018 5:00 am
A group of Minnesota parents caring for family members is asking the Supreme Court to help them break away from union representation.
On Thursday, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation petitioned the Supreme Court to review Bierman v. Dayton, a case challenging exclusive union representation. The case was filed on behalf of home health workers, including a mother caring for a child with cerebral palsy. The aides claim that they have been forced to surrender their representation rights to labor giant Service Employees International Union Minnesota Healthcare despite the fact that only 13 percent of workers participated in a 2014 mail-in representation election.
Tell me if this sounds familiar. Dear old Mom is getting a little dingy and can no longer live alone. Being a dutiful child you take her in, like children have been doing for generations. After all she is family. Your siblings pitch in when and where they can.
You damn fool! The old biddy is money in the bank. Why take care of mom for free or more likely your expense. The state will pay you to do what families have been obliged to do from time out of mind. Of course there is a catch…
Once mom is safely declared incapable of caring for herself Medicaid/Medicare kicks in. The government programs pays for nursing home expenses. But what if you want to keep her at home? The Feds will pay for home health care. However, the provider must be “certified.”
There isn’t a situation that the Feds can’t fuck up. In order to qualify for reimbursement the home health care has to be certified. Here is a description of the Texas Nurse Aide training certification.
Nurse aides must complete state-approved programs. The most direct path to certification is to complete a Texas-approved Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program, or NATCEP (http://info.sos.state.tx.us/pls/pub/readtac$ext.ViewTAC?tac_view=4&ti=40&pt=1&ch=94&rl=Y). Texas programs are 100 hours. They include 60 hours of and 40 hours of clinical skills training. The student can expect a background check as part of the eligibility process.
Now for the silly shit. A budding Nurse Aide has two paths. The prospective candidate can go to work in a hospital, no certification required. The hospital nurse aid will receive training, at no cost. The second alternative is to go to work at a nursing home or home health care provider. That route requires a hundred hour training course, final exam and tuition ranging from several hundred to over a thousand dollars. Same job, same skill set. The certification has nothing to do with patient care. The certification entitles the bearer to feed at the public trough.
But we’re not done, there’s more! A family member can go through the certification program. Once certified that family member can then be paid by the state to do what most family members do for free.
In Minnesota, home health care workers are represented by SEIU, whether they want to be or not. Because they are represented by SEIU they have to pay union dues. SEIU and their cronies in state government decided that family members receiving compensation, from the state, as a nurse aid are state employees.
I’d be willing to bet that SEIU hasn’t broached the subject of pension, insurance, medical benefits, and working conditions for these folks.
Everybody gets free money, except the taxpayer. What’s next? I know, workmen’s compensation for crooks injured during the commission of a crime.
You say Union, I say organized crime, potato,potatoe.