Senate Bills 790 & 791 passed last week
Last week, Senate Bills 790 & 791 passed along partisan lines in the State House, creating the Home Healthcare Council which will make thousands of home healthcare workers public employees, because they are paid in part with Medicaid dollars and allows them to be unionized by the SEIU.
NFIB Michigan State Director Amanda Fisher expressed concerns with the legislation saying, “This legislation is the very definition of government overreach. The fact that the legislature can choose to declare certain individuals as public employees and force them to belong to a Council that they do not wish to belong merely because they accept government subsidies is absolutely ludicrous and sets a dangerous precedent.
“If the legislature wants to provide home healthcare workers benefits and a pay increase, they can do that through the appropriations process. The funds used to set up this council as well as ensuing union dues will actually take money away from the people that the bill claims to want to help. This is just another example of the legislative majority bending to the will of a small subset of activists at the expense of the will of the majority of Michigan citizens.”
The bills would make home caregivers employees of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for the sole purpose of being represented by a labor organization. Both bills passed the Senate in June and are expected to be sent to the Governor soon.
