
(OLYMPIA, Wash.) — In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the First Amendment right of publicly compensated homecare and daycare …
The Freedom Foundation has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against SEIU 775 on behalf of a home caregiver who received a deceptive email from the union trying to trick her into signing a nearly irrevocable union membership agreement online.
This week, SEIU 775 agreed to pay $3.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in federal court brought by individual provider home care aides who had union dues deducted from their wages without their consent.
I was privileged this past week to argue a lawsuit before the Division 2 Court of Appeals in Tacoma over whether the Washington State Department of Health and Social Services’ obvious foot-dragging in response to a valid Freedom Foundation information request violates the state’s Public Records Act and Supreme Court precedent.
Ochoa, a Spokane homecare provider, opted out of SEIU 775 shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 ruling in Harris v. Quinn struck down mandatory dues and fees for Medicaid-reimbursed caregivers and childcare providers.
The Freedom Foundation has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against SEIU 775 with the Public Employment Relations Commission on behalf a home caregiver who was illegally signed up for union membership over the phone.
State payroll data indicate only three-quarters of individual provider home care aides had union dues withheld from their wages in October 2018, the lowest percentage since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Harris v. Quinn made dues payment optional.
This week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in two federal lawsuits against unions brought by the Freedom Foundation in partnership with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. One case is the first of its kind to reach a federal circuit court and both are nationally significant.
SEIU 775 president David Rolf stepping down amid questions about his leadership and increasing challenges to his union’s ability to continue coercively collecting dues. Rolf’s tenure was defined by his authoritarian style and his union’s exploitation of tens of thousands of Washington home caregivers.
After the Freedom Foundation filed a federal class-action lawsuit to end the abusive practice, SEIU 775 will cease deducting union dues without permission from the wages of thousands of home caregivers serving Medicaid-eligible clients. The unauthorized seizures totaled an estimated $14 million since 2014.