SEIU gains power over 32,000 workers with 4,200 votes

A home health care provider told Michigan Capitol Confidential that she never received a ballot to determine whether she wanted to join the Service Employees International Union.

Jan, a Michigander who asked Michigan Capitol Confidential not to use her full name, helps care for her eight-year-old grandson who has special needs. Fortunately for him, Jan provides care for him at home.

This is the second time in recent decades that the SEIU has installed its dues skim, which takes money from people who receive state stipends to care for someone else, usually a family member. It did so after receiving a majority vote from a tiny fraction of those it purports to represent before state officials. There are 32,000 home health care providers in the Michigan. Only 5,527 valid ballots were cast on the matter of unionization, with 4,205 votes in favor. Another 1,502 providers voted against the effort, according to the Michigan Employment Relations Commission.

Jan is concerned that her voice was not heard and that others did not have the opportunity to express their opinion.

Ballots were mailed Sept. 15 and due by Oct. 6. Not every home health care provider is eligible to vote, according to the state.

The Michigan Employment Relations Commission is responsible for sending out ballots and administering the vote. A commission employee told CapCon during a phone interview that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ Home Help Caregiver Council is responsible for sending a complete list of eligible voters to the commission.

The state’s website explains who is considered eligible to vote: “Those persons eligible to vote are: All individual home help caregivers selected by a participant or the participant's representative, who provides individual home help services to a participant. Excluding: Caregivers who provide services through an agency provider, an integrated care organization, or similar entity.”

If a home health caregiver used a private agency to find someone to care for, that person is excluded from the bargaining unit.

Those individuals are likely excluded because they are considered private sector employees and cannot be unionized under the rules of the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, Derk Wilcox, senior attorney at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, told CapCon. The commission only deals with public employees.

If the individual is employed by an agency provider, they are employed by that agency, a private sector company.

If a provider who receives a state stipend is employed by a loved one — for instance, a parent who cares for her child gets paid by the state — the person is considered a public employee, under rules Michigan lawmakers enacted last year.

The Mackinac Center recently sued the state employment commission in the the Michigan Court of Claims. Its lawsuit contends that it is not lawful to classify home care providers as public sector employees.

Efforts to unionize home health care providers employed by an agency provider would fall under the federal National Labor Relations Board, Wilcox said. Any attempt to unionize home health care providers who work for a private company is not lawful, he added, as the board states that home care workers cannot unionize.

Jan told CapCon that she did not receive a ballot, which suggests that some other care providers may not have received one, either. One possible reason is that their names were not on a list compiled by the caregiver council. This may have been the case with Jan.

Jan received a government stipend for her work from 2022 through the end of summer 2024. She resumed caring for her grandson this year and started getting payments again in August. It is possible that the list of caregivers the council sent to the employment commission was not updated to include Jan’s name and contact information.

CapCon emailed the caregiver council for comment. It received an email from the Department of Labor and Economic Activity. The labor department said that the employment commission sends information to those eligible to vote in an organizing election, known as the Excelsior List. A person who has not received a ballot may contact the employment commission, which “will mail a ballot (challenged or duplicate) and advise the worker to contact the Employer to confirm that their name is on the Excelsior list,” wrote Jason Moon, the department’s communications manager.

“Due to the confidential nature of the election process,” Moon wrote, “MERC does confirm or deny whether a name is listed on the Excelsior list, except to bone fide parties to a case.”

Home health care providers who are are concerned that they are included in the bargaining unit and do not want to join the union or pay dues to it may contact the Mackinac Center for help in, opting out.