MN Caregivers Want Fake Union Dues Back

The campaign by personal care attendants who oppose union representation continues to gather momentum. The goal is to collect enough signatures to force the State of Minnesota to allow a vote to disband the SEIU Healthcare Minnesota union that collects union dues from Medicaid subsidies to PCAs who often care for family members with special needs.

The Daily Signal is the latest national media outlet to call attention to what’s been called the biggest public employee union decertification campaign ever undertaken.

When the union representative came to her door last month, Mary Barton invited the cheerful young woman in because she seemed friendly, and it was raining.

But about two weeks ago, that visit to her home somehow led to $27.90 in union dues being deducted from Barton’s benefit check as a home caregiver to her disabled daughter.

“She never said anything about [union] membership, and she just said we would like your support,” Barton told The Daily Signal, describing the visit by the union rep who gave her name as Yuliya.

Now, Barton and her husband Mike are warning other caregivers in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region not to fall for the same tactics.

The family didn’t want their real name published out of “concern of being harassed by the union” due to what happened when they were recently contacted by a union representative. Their experience provides an unusual window into SEIU’s alleged M.O.

But as friendly as she was, Yuliya certainly had a method and technique. She handed me a card to sign and said, ‘We really would like your support.’ She never said anything about membership and she just said we would like your support. Then, I started reading [the card] and saw that it meant dues would be coming out, so I yanked the card away.

After Barton grabbed the card, she recalled, Yuliya presented her with another card that the union rep said she should sign to get more information about the union and its benefits. Barton signed that.

“That’s what they do,” Mike Barton said of the union.

The Bartons say the union organizer even sent them a thank you note.

A spokesman for SEIU Healthcare Minnesota has not responded to The Daily Signal’s questions about whether a union representative named Yuliya visited personal care assistants, and about other details in this report.

Although Barton didn’t sign the membership form, which she kept and presented to The Daily Signal, she said she noticed a few days before the interview that $27.90 in union dues was being taken out of her check from PCA Choice.

Mike Barton has asked SEIU to refund the money.

The Bartons and thousands of other families face enough challenges without having to worry about union organizers coming to their door. Read more about their story and why thousands of other families have joined in supporting the decertification campaign here.