Michigan Democrats pass law to unionize family caregivers in last-ditch power play before election

DETROIT — Michigan Democrats passed a “dues skim” law to unionize caregivers with less than a month to go until Election Day, signaling the party knows its time could be up controlling the Great Lakes State come 2025.

The entire Michigan House is up for election Nov. 5, and Republicans need to flip just two seats to win control of the lower chamber and overcome the Democrats’ 56-54 majority. But the GOP is betting bigger, eyeing potential victories in as many as 12 House seats this cycle.

That means lame-duck season is arriving early this year, and Dems are celebrating with a legislative gift to their union backers.

Michigan’s home-help program pays individuals, who need not be medical professionals, to take care of their family members who are sick or hurt. It’s an alternative to hiring outside help or putting a loved one in a home.

The dues-skim law would force about 30,000 of these home-help workers into paying dues to the Service Employees International Union. Public employees have the First Amendment right to opt out from the union. But opt outs are difficult, and there is no requirement employees be informed of their right to do so.

Even accounting for opt outs, critics and analysts say dues skim could bring a $16 million annual windfall to the SEIU, on the low end.

Bill Schuette is a first-term representative and chair of the House Republican Campaign Committee, which is trying to regain control of the chamber. Until 2022, the GOP controlled Michigan’s legislature for the better part of 40 years.

“Just because it’s October now doesn’t mean we need to go down the road of ‘The Walking Dead’ and resurrect these zombies from Michigan’s political past,” Schuette told The Post.

Dues skim is not new in Michigan; this is a second pass. In the first, the SEIU took in $34 million in dues from home-help workers before lawmakers ended the scheme in 2012.

But it’s a different set of lawmakers in charge now.

In this election year, lawmaking has been slow. The House hadn’t met for a session since June until Sept. 25.

That was the day this dues-skim legislation emerged from the Senate Appropriations committee in the form of Senate Bills 790 and 791. They passed the full Senate and House that same day.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the bills last week.

“They took it all the way in one day,” Schuette told the Post. “There was no time for discussion or debate.”

Whitmer was a state lawmaker in 2012 when Republicans ended dues skim the first time. While the governor presents dues skim as the “restoration of bargaining rights,” Republicans note there’s nothing to bargain, as home-help workers make a set wage.

With no wages to negotiate for these workers, the union will be paid for a no-show job.

“There’s no one they’re negotiating with because these wages are set by the federal government,” Schuette said. “This is not a employer-employee kind of relationship you’d have in the private sector. These wages are basically set by federal Medicaid reimbursements, Medicare programs and such. But it’s not like they’re negotiating with a private employer. And so the only people who benefit from this are the unions.”

Patrick Wright, vice president of legal affairs for the Mackinac Center, a Michigan free-market think tank, said because home-help workers are employed by the Department of Health and Human Services, they are public employees — who have a right to opt out of unions thanks to a 2018 US Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.

Unlike last time, Wright noted, workers do have a way out of the union they’ve been forced into.

The Mackinac Center is working to inform employees of their opt-out rights. Republican efforts to notify home-help workers of their “Janus rights” failed down party lines.

Schuette said Republicans see a campaign issue here. They’ll start by noting the practice of dues skim, which is generally unpopular when people hear about it. And then they’ll talk about all the issues Democrats ignored to push it through in a single day.

“It’s not like we have any shortage of major issues facing our state right now,” Schuette said. “Our restaurants are facing an existential crisis with the elimination of the tip credit in our state. There’s not a small business in our state that isn’t concerned about the workability of the paid sick and sick leave programs that were just implemented by the state Supreme Court.”

Lawmakers have not taken action on the coming elimination of tipped wages in Michigan, despite warnings from all sides the new pay scale will push some restaurants to the brink of closure.

“So we have some serious issues facing the table, and instead of digging in and working on those issues, they pass this dues-skim bill,” Schuette told the Post. “It’s pretty ridiculous.”