New law robs home health-care workers, circumvents U.S. Supreme Court ruling
OLYMPIA…Senate Republican Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, offered the following comments Tuesday after Gov. Jay Inslee signed controversial legislation that essentially gives home health-care workers no choice but to sacrifice part of their modest income to pay dues to one of the state’s most politically active labor unions.
By transferring independent home health-care providers under the Department of Social and Health Services umbrella to the employment of a new form of private contractor, Senate Bill 6199 ignores the rights and wishes of home health-care workers who do not want to join a union. It effectively circumvents the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Harris v. Quinn, which established that forced union membership is unconstitutional.
“Less than a year ago, when the governor vetoed the bill that would have saved and created manufacturing jobs across Washington, we saw how little he actually cares for workers. His signature on Senate Bill 6199 today is an affront to workers’ constitutional rights and it shows that he really cares more about giving their hard-earned money to a union who donates to his campaign.”
“Typically, you contract out services when it saves money or expands services. This bill does neither. In fact, it costs taxpayers and additional $26 million in administrative costs with no expanded services at all. Inslee and the Legislature’s Democrat majority didn’t do any favors here for parents who earn $14 per hour caring for their disabled children. They just made it possible for the union to pick the pockets of people who already have it hard.”
“The governor once vetoed more than 20 good bills in one day out of anger. I hoped he’d veto Senate Bill 6199 out of conscience.”
The passage and signing of SB 6199 supposedly was requested by DSHS. An email obtained by the Freedom Foundation in a recent public-records request to the governor’s office showed it to be an effort directly influenced by Service Employees International Union (SEIU). SB 6199 allows SEIU to force the more than 35,000 members who left the union after Harris v. Quinn to pay dues.