Paige Halper, recently former Athena Worker Freedom Fellow at the Center for Worker Freedom (CWF), had an op-ed published by the Daily Caller on July 15, 2016:

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton signed S.F. 778 into law in May 2013. The law opened up unionization for thousands of homecare workers who have chosen to care for special-needs family members at home.

Following the passage of S.F. 778, less than 6,000 workers voted for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to become the exclusive representative of an estimated 27,000 PCAs.  The union signed a contract with the state of Minnesota in May 2015 and now the union takes three percent of each member’s Medicaid subsidy.

It’s this contract and pay system that Dayton used to classify PCAs as government employees, allowing the union to march in under the guise of collective bargaining. The contract asserts, “the State recognizes the union as the exclusive representative under Minnesota Public Employee Labor Relations Act (PERLA).”

But PERLA provides a very specific definition of a public employee — “any person appointed or employed by a public employer.” A public employee, then, would not be hired by a family member or friend in need at home.

  The Supreme Court has agreed.

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