-By Warner Todd Huston
If CBS News has it right, the majority of in-home healthcare workers in Illinois voted not to join a union despite the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Governor Quinn’s best efforts to force the issue.
Earlier in the year, Governor Quinn signed Executive Order 09-15 that gave away the private information of every in-home healthcare worker in the state to several unions so that they might begin a campaign to cajole these workers into joining a union by calling them on the phone and visiting them at their homes.
In-home healthcare workers receive a stipend from the state in order to help them care for developmentally disabled or medically at risk family members.
Quinn’s EO gave these unions the right to fight over these in-home workers. The workers were asked to vote this week on whether they wanted to join the American Federation of State, County of Municipal Employees (AFSCME) or the SEIU, but more than half voted not to join any union at all, the third choice on the ballot.
Quinn planned to take away some of the money these workers received from the state and hand it to the unions as “dues” whether the workers agreed to join the union or not. It is not known if Quinn plans to carry through with this plan now that the majority of these workers turned down union representation.
If Illinois goes the route of several other states, the Governor will just declare these workers in a union no matter what they voted to do and begin taking their money for dues regardless. This is the sneaky route being taken in several states across the nation to unionizing millions of workers that neither are aware of, nor want union representation. It is also little else but a direct transfer of state money to union coffers.
Whatever the future holds for unionizing in-home healthcare workers in Illinois, this voting down of union interference in their lives is a first, but likely temporary, victory. Only political pressure against these unions can prevent further interference in the lives of Illinois’ in-home healthcare workers.
The nature of the intertwined association between government and ACORN is why we ask that you join us and Say NO to ACORN.
Sign the petition and tell Governor Quinn that you want a real investigation to end corruption for good.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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