Source: https://ocpolitical.com/2014/07/01/harris-v-quinn-an-important-limitation-on-forced-unionization/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 14:42:59+00:00

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On Monday, June 30, 2014 the United State Supreme Court issued its ruling in the important case of Harris v. Quinn. While the case is limited in its ruling and scope, it is a critical one where the Court boxed in the ever expansionist reach of government employee unions.
Mrs. Pamela Harris is the mother of a severely disabled adult son who needs constant care due to his disabilities. A federal Medicaid program funds many state run programs that provides financial assistance by paying caregivers for these individuals who reside at home rather than in a more expensive nursing care facility. Most often it is a family member who is providing this care and who is being paid to do so under this program. The State of Illinois has such a program and by law declared these caregivers to be state employees but without any right to benefits, not subject to any control as to their time, place or methods of provision of care services (and provides that the caregiver is solely responsible to and is an at will employee of the customer (the disabled person)) and the State is immune from any liability to the disabled customer for any home caregivers negligence or intentional conduct.
In 2003, first by executive order then legislation, the caregivers were forced to join a union, the SEIU, and pay dues, which the State withheld from their Medicaid payments. Mrs. Harris and others challenged this forced unionization via this case. She lost at the federal trial court and intermediate appeals court levels with those courts relying on a past U.S.S.C. court case Abood v. Detroit Bd. Of Ed. 431 U.S. 209 (1977). The Supreme Court, noting the importance of the factual situation described above, ruled in Mrs. Harris favor.
Once the Court found the holding in Abood was not controlling in this situation, it then did an analysis of the facts of this situation under “generally applicable First Amendment standards.” Relying on cases like Knox v. Service Employees 567 U.S. ___ , 132 S. Ct. 2277 (2012), the Court ruled that the justification of preventing “free riders” benefiting from union negotiations for its members applying to those not paying for union dues / expenses, did not apply in the context of the Harris facts (in-home workers as described above).
Once again, the Court noted several significant differences between the regular full time government employee and the in-home caregivers the Illinois statute attempted to force unionization upon. For example, one justification cited by the unions is “labor peace” in not having conflicting unions vying for membership in the same union shop locations. The Court noted that in-home caregivers are not in one place but always in the customers’ homes (which are often the caregivers homes’ as well). Space does not permit me to go through all of the Court’s reasoning here. The Court ordered that union dues and agency fees can no longer be withheld from a home caregivers’ Medicaid payments if they object.
1. The Court effectively blocked forced government unionization of recipients of funds under government programs like Medicaid where the person receiving the payments is not a true “government” worker where the state agency controls the time, method and means of employment. This is especially true where the legislature declares the “employee” is not entitled to any typical government employee benefits like pension rights. The Court was very specific about the limited nature of the “employment” between the State of Illinois and the home caregiver.
2. The Harris decision is not banning forced union membership (or agency payments to a union by those who do not join the union) for traditional full time government workers such as public school teachers, CHP officers, firefighters, etc. This is not a “right to work” decision for all government employees.
3. However, a close reading of the Harris majority’s analysis of the Abood decision notes the current majority’s concerns that the policy and practical implications of Abood’s approval of closed shop laws for government employees. Thus the majority justices may be open to a challenge from a more traditional full time government employee.
4. Elections matter – the Harris decision and the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case (both critically important First Amendment cases decided on the same day) were five to four votes that included the swing vote of Justice Kennedy. All of the four “liberal” justices voted in the dissent to uphold the forced unionization of the home caregivers in Harris (and to deny religious expression as argued in the Hobby Lobby case). Thus the outcomes of the elections in the fall for control of the U.S. Senate and the White House in 2016 are critical as the make up of the Court could be the deciding factor on these important issues one way or another in the near future.
To read the Court’s opinion go to: (Harris v. Quinn).
Craig P. Alexander, Esq. is an attorney at law who practices in the area of insurance coverage, construction defect, business dispute and general civil litigation. His office is in Dana Point, California.
This entry was posted on July 1, 2014 at 3:10 PM	and is filed under Uncategorized. Tagged: Abood v. Detroit Bd. Of Ed., Governor Pat Quinn, Harris v. Quinn, Illinois, Justice Alito, labor unions, Medicaid, Pamela Harris, SEIU, United States Supreme Court. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Craig, can you speculate on Harris’ potential impact on Calfornia’s IHSS (http://www.cdss.ca.gov/agedblinddisabled/PG1296.htm) program?
OC Insider – I do not know the details of the IHSS program although I heard some years ago the caregivers were forced into the SEIU similar to the way it happened in Illinois. The facts of the Harris case were very clear that the State of Illinois was declaring the caregivers to be state employees in name only for purposes of unionization. If the California IHSS or similar program is set up in a similar fashion, a similar lawsuit could end the unionization portion of that program too. I suspect some attorneys on both sides are looking at that right now. I would also speculate that the unions and their allies in the state legislature are studying the decision with the view of changing the IHSS and similar programs to avoid the same result as in the Harris case.
One way is to make the caregivers actual state employees with rights, benefits, etc. just like any other full time employees. Part of that would be taking away the power of the consumer (often a relative of the caregiver like Mrs. Harris) to hire and fire the caregiver. That would be a very expensive proposition to the taxpayers and massively alter the current program. However, with this union controlled legislature, I would not be surprised if they did just that.
IHSS Caregivers in California are currently state employees, forced to join the union in order to work in the program. Their pay and benefit packages are negotiated county by county, and often less than they would receive in the private sector for the same job. The client for whom they work (often a family member) is considered a joint employer, with the ability to hire and fire. The state acts as a fiscal intermediary with all other employer obligations such as payroll taxes and workers comp insurance. As one might imagine the system is wrought with fraud.
The unions are the big winners, with half a milion members compelled to join. Privatization of the system would significantly cut fraud and waste, but there are only a couple counties that allow a private company to contract – and there’s no competitive bidding and that company itself is unionized. Remember also that this is a Medi-Cal program, not Medicare or insurance. With the Medi-Cal budget constantly strained, one would think the state would be looking for ways to save money that can go to the actual delivery of services rather than lining the pockets of union bosses.

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