NRTW Attorneys file suit against MN Gov. Dayton’s SEIU-AFSCME payback scheme

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, like former governors Gray Davis (CA), Rod Blagojevich (IL), and Jennifer Granholm (MI) to name a few, knows how to payback the SEIU union bosses — they all indentured parents and family members who take care of relatives to Big Labor.  It is a shameless act of pure political power compelling people who are not even employees of the state to be required to pay union dues and fees.  In Michigan,  Governor Rick Snyder ended Granholm’s SEIU payback scheme.  But, in other states like Minnesota, parents and family members have not been so fortunate.  That is why the National Right to Work Legal Defense is taking the case in an effort to expose the scheme and have the court system eventually rule against everyone of these schemes. Legal schemes that were in a large part a brainchild of Obama’s former NLRB member Craig Becker.

From The StarTribune article by Jim Ragsdale and Paul  Walsh:

Opponents of the drive to unionize in-home child care providers have filed a second suit aimed at blocking a union vote.

A group of 12 child-care providers, aided by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, filed suit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis against Gov. Mark Dayton’s executive order authorizing a union election. The group argues that the order is unconstitutional because it could ultimately require all providers to be represented by the union, whether they want to or not.

The federal complaint says that if either or both unions win the elections in their geographic areas, the union would become the “exclusive” representative of all providers. It said the providers who filed the suit do not want to associate with either union “in any way” and “wish to retain their individual right to choose with whom they associate to lobby the state.”

“In the order, the state is going to designate a representative of these providers for the purposes of petitioning the state,” said William Messenger, an attorney for the foundation, based in Springfield, Va. “It infringes on the freedom of association — the First Amendment protects to right to associate or not associate.”

After an organizing drive by the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Dayton issued an order setting a union election for those providers who care for children with state subsidies — about 4,300 of the state’s 11,000 licensed in-home providers.

The foundation is focused on fighting what it considers “compulsory unionism,” such as workplaces where employees are required to be members. It is providing legal work on the lawsuit for free, Messenger said.

From the related National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation press release:

Minnesota Child Care Providers File Federal Lawsuit Challenging Forced Unionization Scheme

Child care providers fight against Governor Dayton’s dictate that pushes childcare business owners into union

Minneapolis, MN (January 19, 2012) – A group of home-based child care providers have filed a federal lawsuit challenging Governor Mark Dayton’s recent executive order designed to forcibly unionize the state’s providers.

Jennifer Parrish from Rochester filed the suit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation.

Parrish and other providers seek to halt Dayton’s executive order intended to designate American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) officials as the monopoly bargaining and political representatives of thousands of providers in the state.

Home-based child care and personal care providers are challenging similar forced-unionization-by-government-fiat schemes in numerous states across the country, including Michigan and Illinois.

Foundation attorneys argue that such schemes violate the providers’ First Amendment rights of freedom of speech, association, and petition of government guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution because the government does not have the power to force citizens to accept the government’s handpicked political representation to lobby itself.

“This union boss power grab scheme is nothing more than pure political payback and was popularized by disgraced Governors Gray Davis of California and Rod Blagojevich of Illinois,” said Mark Mix, President of National Right to Work.  “The forced political association that is occurring in the North Star State as a result of Governor Dayton’s dictate is a slap in the face of fundamental American principles we hold dear.”

The lawsuit is the second legal challenge to Minnesota’s child care provider unionization scheme, but the first in federal