Democrats & Unions - Mathias & SEIU Part 1

Unions minus Coercion Equal Nothing

A recent piece in the WSJ is a classic illustration of the fact that the legendary political power of the vaunted labor unions is based at this point only on government-sanctioned coercion.

One of the biggest supporters of Democrat politicians is the ultra-leftist Service Employees International Union (SEIU). In 2005, the Democratic governor of blue-state Michigan, a socialist named Jennifer Granholm, gave the SEIU the power to unionize the 40,000 or so home health care workers in the state. These estimable folk are usually independent contractors – i.e., small business owners – or just family members caring for disabled people, often elderly people. Of course, the SEIU – like all unions – is desperately scrambling for more members to shore up its ranks. Union-tool Granholm held that because these workers get Medicaidsubsidies, they were to be considered “public employees.”

Other states also have deliberately classed home health care workers as “public,” including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. All of them are solidly controlled by Democrats politicians – by pure coincidence, no doubt!

More