Ramsey County Judge Dale Lindman just scuttled the forced unionization of in-home child care providers. It doesn't get more clear than this:
"If unionization of day care is to become the law of Minnesota, it must first be submitted to the lawmaking body of the state," Judge Dale Lindman said after hearing three hours of testimony.
Lindman also said he was "bothered" that less than half of the state's 11,000 in-home child care workers were eligible to vote in the election. Eligibility was extended to about 4,300 providers who are currently licensed to receive state subsidies to care for low-income children.
This is a major, crushing blow to Gov. Dayton, AFSCME Council 5 and the SEIU. Without having read Judge Lindman's ruling, it sounds like he agreed with the child care providers' argument that they didn't fit the description of public employees.
Gov. Dayton only has the authority to call for unionization elections if public employees are involved. If Judge Lindman indeed ruled that these child care providers weren't public employees, then that's why Judge Lindman issued his order.
Recently, Gov. Dayton said that the cost of child care wouldn't go up if unionization passed. This paragraph suggests otherwise:
Two Minnesota unions, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union, had been seeking the union vote for several years. Proponents argued that providers who operate in part on state subsidies had the right to organize and bargain with state agencies over subsidy rates as well as other rules and regulations governing in-home care.
Anytime subsidy rates for anything go up, the cost to Minnesota's taxpayers increase. At a recent hearing in St. Cloud, a blogger asked some SEIU representatives about the cost of child care going up. The SEIU representative initially denied it. When blogger Leo Pusateri pressed them on Minnesota's Fair Share laws, the SEIU representative admitted that they'd pass the additional cost onto taxpayers:
[T]he SEIU leadership acknowledges that they will attempt to shift the cost of union membership of daycare providers to taxpayers...
Thus far, we know these things:
- union organizers tried posing as food program monitors to gain access to child care providers' homes
- Gov. Dayton overstepped his authority in issuing his executive order
- SEIU and AFSCME representatives initially misrepresented the fact that child care costs would increase if unionization was ratified.
Here's what the MLFCCA said about union organizers posing as food program monitors:
MLFCCA has forwarded multiple testimonies of deceptive organizing practices to union officials and later to you; including multiple reports of impersonating a food program monitor in order to gain access to a home. This has made it clear that providers have not received the factual information they need to help them min ake their decision. As requested, we will continue to forward these reports.
Using deceptive tactics to gain access to child care providers certainly isn't what honest organizations do. It's what corrupt organizations must do because they can't sell their product by being honest.
The SEIU and AFSCME can appeal this to other appellate courts. Still, those remedies don't figure to change today's outcome.
This is a major blow to the Dayton administration, the SEIU and AFSCME. It's a major victory for Minnesota's taxpayers, child care providers and parents who receive government assistance.
In short, it's a victory for the good guys.
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