LANSING – A bill that would invalidate the union home health care workers formed was reported Tuesday from the House Government Operations committee along party lines.
Rep. Vicki Barnett (D-Farmington Hills) offered an amendment that would eliminate the retroactive nature of the bill so it would not impair current union contracts. It failed along party lines.
Last week the Senate approved SB 1018 a week after the Service Employees International Union, which represents those workers, made public a ballot drive it has launched to enshrine their right to unionize in the Constitution, an initiative first reported by Gongwer News Service. It also came as some tea party conservatives voiced their displeasure that the bill had sat on the Senate floor for almost four months after winning committee approval.
Barnett said the bill is not necessary since there is a procedure in place for those opposed to being in a union to decertify.
She said this would void the contracts of those child care and home health care workers that unionized previously and have been collectively bargaining for benefits.
Nick Ciaramitaro with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 25, opposed the bill, saying it states a person who receives a government subsidy in their private employment is not a public employee.
He said he knows the bill is meant to apply to child and home health care workers, but the language is vague.
“It could apply to lots of folks depending on how that was interpreted,” he said.
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