GOOD MORNING FLINT!
By Terry Bankert.
A Flint Divorce Attorney sharing his opinion.
12/29/09
DAY CARE WORKERS HAVE A UNION AND MUST KEEP IT.
We in Flint and the unions our families thrived because of or we currently belong to ,are being treated unfairly in the press.
Our own people are silent when the traditional forces of anti unionism raise their ugly heads. WHY?
Recently these forces have spoken through the mouth of John Stossel and the text of the Wall Street Journal. Two birds of a feather. Give me a break.
What is not in their stories is the plight of the worker in these under paid child care sweat shops.
Poor management, too many kids, harsh working environment, mean spirited parents, and the oppression of an unchecked state bureaucracy.
We have an insensitive state apparatus reacting to the minority of situations when children are put in harms way.
In response them bring easy but the wrong solutions. Oppress the workers!
Poorly thought out rules are inflicted on the majority of the good workers trying to earn a living to support their own children. These people need a union. They have one .
NOTES:
Flint Journal investigation: Horror stories dot some Genesee County child care facilities, state records show.[7] This is a system screaming for regulations. Bu worker rights must be protected too.
JOHN STOSSEL AND THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ARE COMPLETE BONE HEADS!
Recently much has been in the news of Michigan efforts to protect the state supported workers and children in day care facilities. Just when will their anti union retinoic end?
THERE ARE TWO PRESSURES AT WORK UNDER THE REALITY THAT PUBLIC ASSISTANCE IS MANDATE FOR THE CARE OF SOME CHILDREN.
1. WE NEED A HIGHER LEVEL OF ACCOUNTABILITY OF THE WORKERS IN THIS SYSTEM.
2.THOSE WORKERS DESERVE A UNION TO PROTECT THEM FROM THE OPPORESSIVE POWER OF UNCHECK STATE REGULATION.
Who are we protecting?"They are the people entrusted with watching your children -- but a slice of child care providers in Genesee County have been cited for violations that can stir a parent's worst nightmare, a Flint Journal investigation found. [7]
One provider hired someone who was listed in the Department of Human Services' central registry for child abuse or neglect without reporting it to the state, according to DHS investigation reports.[7]
Another caretaker allowed a person with a criminal background who didn't have state clearance to be alone with children.[7]
Improper supervision led to one child being locked outside and another to walk right out of the building without anyone noticing, state records show. Other times, children suffered injuries or were found engaging in inappropriate activities when apparently no one was watching[7]
THE NARRASISTICE KNOWN IT ALL JOHNNY ATTACK S FLINT WORKERS
The United Auto Workers has demonstrated how a bloated unionized workforce can help undermine an industry's survival. As auto jobs have disappeared, the union got creative in using government to keep the dues rolling in. That's apparent in Flint, Michigan, the birthplace of General Motors. (Remember them?)[4]
WHEN A STATE FUNDED SERVICE IS JOINED AS A VENDOR SPECIAL CONDITIONS NOW AS AN AGENT OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN SHOULD BE EXPECTED
Michelle Berry runs a private day-care service from her home on the outskirts of this city, the birthplace of General Motors.[1]
BEFORE THE UNIONIZATION OF THE WORKERS CHILDREN WERE BEING HARMED.
Berry is among several providers and parents who contacted The Flint Journal after a two part Flint Journal series of violations related to background checks, supervision and health and safety at the more than 500 childcare providers in the county[6]
A Journal investigation of Department of Human Services public records found several severe offenses -- including one provider who hired a person listed in the DHS registry for child abuse or neglect and another who allowed someone with a criminal background to be alone with children[6]
"The Berry Patch," as she calls the service, features overstuffed purple gorillas, giant cartoon murals, and a playroom covered in Astroturf. [1]
Flint childcare provider Michelle Berry, who went into the business after contending her own son was emotionally abused at an area daycare. [6]
BERRY STARTED FOR THE BEST OF REASONS THEN SOLD OUT TO ANTI UNION FORCES
"There are many daycares in Genesee County that do not do what they're supposed to do and I know that," she said. "It leaves a sour taste in parents' mouths.
"But it reflects poorly on those who do. The ones who are doing everything they're supposed to do get forgotten."[6]
Her clients are mostly low-income parents who need child care to keep their jobs in a city that now has a 26% unemployment rate.[1]
That's when Berry, a mother of three, opted to watch children at her own home. Most of the families who Berry serves use state assistance for childcare -- which pays her $2.61 an hour.[6] Per child?
Berry was also mentioned in a Flint Journal Story earlier this year about the number of violations found in area daycare centers. In that story she said she went into the business after contending her own son was emotionally abused at an area daycare[5]
BERRY HAS REPLACED TRADITIONAL PUBLIC EMPLOYEES IN THE PROVISION OF STATE FUNDED CHILD CARE SERVICES
Ms. Berry owns her own business—yet the Michigan Department of Human Services claims she is a government employee and union member. The agency thus withholds union dues from the child-care subsidies it sends to her on behalf of her low-income clients. Those dues are funneled to a public-employee union that claims to represent her. The situation is crazy—and it's happening elsewhere in the country. [1]
STATE FUNDED CHILD CARE IS HIGHLY REGULATED REQUIRING THE VENDORS TO BE ABLE TO READ WRITE AND THINK.HERE 34,000 SAY THEY CANNOT
"Child care providers in general will have more rules and regulations to live up to than at any other time in history.[6]
A year ago in December, Ms. Berry and more than 40,000 other home-based day care providers statewide were suddenly informed they were members of Child Care Providers Together Michigan—a union created in 2006 by the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The union had won a certification election conducted by mail under the auspices of the Michigan Employment Relations Commission. In that election only 6,000 day-care providers voted. The pro-labor vote turned out. [1]
IF YOU OPPOSE UNIONIZATION THEN CALL IT DIRTY WORK
Many of the state's other 34,000 day-care providers never even realized what was going on. Ms. Berry tells us she was "shocked" to find out she was suddenly in a union. The real dirty work, however, had been done when the state created an "employer" for the union to "organize" against. [1]
SOME WANT THEIR CAKE AND EAT IS TOO
Of course, Michigan's independent day-care providers don't work for anybody except the parents who were their customers. Nevertheless, because some of these parents qualified for public subsidies, the Child Care Providers "union" claimed the providers were "public employees." [1]
MOTT COMMUNITY COLLEGE TO THE RESCUE
Michigan's Department of Human Services then teamed with Flint-based Mott Community College to sign an "interlocal agreement" in 2006 establishing a separate government agency called the Michigan Home Based Child Care Council. [1]
STATE FUNDED HOME DAY CARE IS A GOOD THING. BUT IT IS STILL A STATE GOVERNMENT SERVCE.
Government officials at all levels, from the federal government to mosquito districts, are searching for new ways to make limited resources go a little further. One potential strategy already used in many jurisdictions is the use of interlocal agreements, allowing governments to cooperate with one another in the performance of tasks, thus achieving Economies of scale and reducing duplication of effort. The basic assumption is that larger size service jurisdictions make lower per unit costs possible. Economies are achieved either by pooling the resources of two or more jurisdictions to jointly provide services, or by contracting with a single large regional service provider. [3]
WE NEED RULES
This council was directed to recommend good child-care practices—and not coincidentally, to serve as a "public employer." [1]
IT WAS A SHELL GAME.
Although the council had almost no staff, no control over the state subsidies and no supervision of the providers' daily activities, it became the shell corporation against which the union could organize.[1]
JOHNNY BOY DID NOT RESEARCH ,STOLE THE WSJ ARTICLE THEN RAN HIS ANTI UNION MOUTH
The UAW's onerous work rules and "jobs banks" -- where workers were paid to sit around and watch TV -- helped crush the US auto industry. Now the union is moving to crush day-care providers and children.[4]
ERSATZ
Thus the state created an ersatz employer and an ersatz "bargaining unit" against which what was essentially an ersatz union could organize. [1]
Ersatz is A German word literally meaning substitute or replacement. Although it is used as an adjective in English…. While the English term often implies that the substitution is of unsatisfactory or inferior quality,…[2]
ONE CORPORATE VIEW IS “SIPHON”, AN OTHER IS PROTECTING THE WORKER.
Today the Department of Human Services siphons about $3.7 million in annual dues to the union—from the child-care subsidies. The money should be going to home-based day-care providers—themselves not on the high end of the income scale. Ms. Berry now sees money once paid to her go to a union that does little for her. She says she is "self employed and wants nothing to do with the union." [1]
UNIONIZATION WAS DULY CREATD BY LAW AND CAN BE UNCREATED BY LAW?SO WHAT IS THE REAL PROBLEM?
The union claims it is working for Ms. Berry and others like her by pressing the legislature to increase child-care payments. But lobbying is not an activity that requires compulsory unionism. [1]
REPUBLICAN ANTI DEMOCRATIC , ANTI FREE THOUGHT NON THINKING TANK IS DEEPLY EMESHED IN THIS OPENLY ANT LABOR INITATIVE
Sherry Loar, who owns a day-care center in Petoskey, Mich., is the lead client in a lawsuit brought against the Department of Human Services in state court by the legal arm of the Michigan-based Mackinac Center, a free-market think tank for whom we work. (Ms. Berry is petitioning to join the suit.) [1]
DO NOT TAKE STATE MONEY IF YOU DO NOT WANT STATE CONTROL
The case is based on the grounds that state law presumes that no one is subject to public-sector bargaining unless state legislation has made them so, and in this case, there is no legislation—only the flimsy interlocal agreement. "I'm not opposed to unions," Ms. Loar says, "everything has a place. But when we enter my door, this is my home."[1]
LABOR PEACE
The larger question, not part of this lawsuit, is whether this sort of unionization violates the U.S. Constitution. The freedom of association clause prevents compulsory unionism except, courts have determined, when it is necessary for "labor peace." But in this case, whom would the day-care providers riot against? The parents? [1]
UNIONIZATION OF HOME CARE WORKERS IS A GREAT NATIONAL MOVEMENT
The federal question may be raised soon, as other states have pursued similar unionization schemes over the past decade, primarily at the behest of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union, better known as the SEIU. [1]
THESE WORKERS ARE ISOLATED UNDERPAID AND HARSHLY MANIPULATED
Fourteen states have now enabled home-based day-care providers to be organized into public-employee unions, affecting about 233,000 people. And nine have done so with home health-care providers. The idea to unionize in this way was hatched in California, though ironically Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed legislation to unionize child-care providers. [1]
TAKE THE STATE MONEY, MY MONEY, VENDORS HAVE TO PAY ,JOIN THE UNION, TO PLAY. WE WILL ALL BENEFIT IN THE END.
It's telling that in several states that have gone down this road, state and federal subsidies are the source of the union dues. In Michigan, the scheme is essentially throwing a cash lifeline to unions like the UAW, which are hemorrhaging members. [1]
MICHIGAN IS ENCOURAGING PRIVATE BUSINESS INVESTMENT
here's another, ironic twist to the story in the Great Lakes state. Last month the Michigan Economic Development Corporation granted a for-profit SEIU subsidiary, the SEIU Member Action Service Center, a $2 million refundable tax credit to locate a new business facility in the state that will provide administrative services for the union and other local labor organizations. [1]
ANTI MIDDLE CLASS WORKER MEDIA ATTACKES A GOOD UNION
The subsidy strikes us as inappropriate because it categorized the SEIU subsidiary as a business and occurred just before the 5,000 member SEIU local 517M granted the state wage concessions. Shamelessly, the SEIU requested the credit because Michigan has high labor costs.[1]
WE HAVE AN EVOLVING SOCIETY IN NEW WAYS WORKERS UNREPRESENTED WILL BE EXPLOITED
Some states are redefining straightforward terms—a union as a business, an employer as an employee—primarily to aid organized labor. This highlights the need to re-examine public-sector collective bargaining. Shielded from market pressures, public employee unions have driven up taxpayer costs for decades. Now labor leaders are shanghaiing entrepreneurs such as Ms. Berry and Ms. Loar into government unions because their clients receive government aid.[3]
UNIONIZE THE DOCTORS, GREAT IDEA
Who will be next? Grocers? Landlords? Doctors?[1]
Posted here by
Terry Bankert
http://www.flintfamilylaw.com/
See:
[1]
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703478704574612341241120838.html
[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ersatz
[3]
http://www.mrsc.org/Publications/mrnews/articles/interlocal6-00.aspx
[4]
http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2009/12/27/uaw-what-we-did-for-cars-well-do-for-your-kids/
[5]
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/12/flint_daycare_providers_intere.html
[6]
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/06/providers_and_parents_respond.html
[7]
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/06/flint_journal_investigation_ho.html
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