Union membership has been declining for decades, but organized labor in Michigan has a new tool to keep dues money flowing from some of the state’s most vulnerable workers.

With the enactment of Senate bills 790 and 791 in October, Michigan homecare providers are classified as public employees. Those are individuals — many of whom care for elderly or disabled family members — who receive a stipend from government programs for their work and sacrifice.

The state law sets up homecare workers to be pressured into union membership and made to pay dues to the Service Employees International Union.

Those caregivers get no benefit from union membership, because the amount of the stipend is decided legislatively and is not subject to collective bargaining. Providers need every cent available to them as they minister care.

The scheme is not exclusive to Michigan. Over the last decade, 11 states have fought similar battles over homecare providers.

In 2020, the State Policy Network released a short documentary featuring victims of dues skim and policy leaders who work to protect the paychecks of those homecare workers.

Their testimonies are still relevant.

Two U.S. Supreme Court rulings have attempted to end the union practice of skimming dues from homecare providers.

In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Harris v. Quinn that non-union homecare workers cannot be required to pay agency fees to a union, as that practice violates their First Amendment rights.

In 2018, the court decided in Janus v. AFSCME that public-sector employees cannot be compelled to join or pay agency fees to a union as a condition of employment. Once again, the court cited the First Amendment.

Michigan repealed the dues skim in 2011, but labor activists sought new ways to take advantage of homecare providers, and they got their chance after the 2022 election left both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office in the hands of union-dependent Democrats.

The laws signed in October will effectively bypass principles established in Harris and Janus.

SB 790 allows public sector unions to charge dues to homecare providers under certain conditions by creating alternative pathways for collective bargaining, even when employees choose not to join the union.

SB 791 allows unions to collect agency fees from nonmembers by using certain legal provisions and employment agreements.

Those bills were signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Oct. 8. They will take effect in 2025, hurting the same people government institutions pledge to protect.

Jessica Wyeth joined the Mackinac Center for Public Policy as a marketing analyst in June 2024.