I’ve written frequently about Gov. Dayton’s collaboration with AFSCME in their attempt to force small businesses to join a union or make fair share payments.
This article wasn’t the first article I wrote about the subject but it was the first article that attracted attention to the subject. Shortly after that, I wrote about Judge Lindman’s ruling that scuttled Gov. Dayton’s attempt to force unionization. This article, though, is about the federal lawsuit, which trumps all other actions.
Despite the federal lawsuit, though, child care small businesses still worry:
Despite prevailing against politically powerful unions and Minnesota’s top elected official, however, they aren’t taking anything for granted, other than the reality that home-based private providers remain more vulnerable than ever to the same forces and tactics.
“Governor Dayton made it clear that it is his intent to make this a legislative issue next session. The fight to remain independent is far from over,” warns a recent coalition email sent to thousands of Minnesota licensed family child care providers.
The Coalition of Child Care Providers is right to worry. CCPT isn’t giving up just because a court ruled against them:
One of the unions behind the organizing drive, AFSCME Child Care Providers Together, has already signaled its intention to continue the to pursue unionization.
“Governor Dayton respects our democratic right to decide for ourselves whether or not we want a union. Every day we wait makes us one day stronger,” said Lisa Thompson of AFSCME Council 5 in a statement. “We’ve already united to increase the qualilty of child care, to improve access for working parents, and to stabilize our profession. Any judge or legislator who tries to stop that is hurting the families who depend on us to keep their kids healthy, learning and safe.”
Lisa Thompson is pro-union shill who’ll say anything. The things she said in this statement aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.
First, Gov. Dayton doesn’t respect democracy because he wanted only a handful of child care small businesses to have a vote in a matter that affects every child care small businesses. He wanted only 4,300 child care small businesses to have a vote, not 11,300.
Limiting the vote to 40% of the people affected by Gov. Dayton’s executive order isn’t respecting democracy. It’s rigging an election.
Second, AFSCME’s contribution to quality child care is negligible. It isn’t verifiable, though it’s nice-sounding.
Third, Thompson’s statement that “Any judge or legislator who tries to stop that is hurting the families who depend on us to keep their kids healthy, learning and safe” is spin through and through. It’s based on the belief that these child care small businesses can’t “keep kids healthy, learning and safe” without unions helping them.
Simply put, that’s BS.
The thing that these unions aren’t taking into account is the fact that the Constitution, specifically the First Amendment, gives individuals the right to petition government and to pick the person or organization that they want to represent them.
That means child care small businesses alone have the right to pick a trade organization or a lobbying firm to lobby the legislature. It even gives them the right to lobby the legislature personally if they choose that option.
In this fight between the CCPT and the Coalition of Child Care Providers, I’m betting that the CCPT will lose because the Constitution isn’t on their side.
Tags: AFSCME, Mark Dayton, Executive Order, Unions, CCPT, Democracy, Cronyism, DFL, Coalition of Child Care Providers, First Amendment, Constitution, Bipartisanship