In the historic Harris v. Quinn case, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that home-care workers, many of whom are just parents acting as the primary caregiver for their ill children, shouldn't be forced to join a union.
Pam Harris, the lead plaintiff in the case who cares for her 25-year-old son who suffers from Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome, said, "It means no third party intrusion, it means that there's not going to be a union contract inserted between my son and I, there's not going to be union rules and regulations dictating how I can provide the care that Josh needs."
The Harris family said they receive a Medicaid check each month for roughly $1,300, and estimates that about $90 of that money went into the pockets of the union each month. This is disgraceful when that $1,300 doesn't even come close to covering the great deal of medical expenses to give their son the care he needs to survive.
Taking a look at the bigger picture of unions, it's time to shut them down everywhere. Indeed, there was a time when unions were a necessary part of the American workforce and gave the little guy a voice. Take a look back and many people will remember the days when employees abused their power and unions leveled the playing field. But today, the people have the power, and unions just aren't necessary. In fact, the roles are reversed, and today it's the unions and its members that are abusing the power.
Unions are dangerous because:
- Unionized workers are spoiled with inflated wages, tenure, and guaranteed work based on every factor outside of job performance and results.
- The unions that were created to protect the little guy from the bully have become the bully. Beyond this third grade mentality of bullying is the entitlement to jobs unions promote and their members actually believe. Why should you be guaranteed a job just because you live in the neighborhood and pay your dues? Where's the logic in that?
- In the era of Twitter, Facebook, smartphones with cameras and 24 hour news, the power is in the hands of the people. Joe lunch bucket, who 20 years ago needed a union to be heard, now has the power to cause a national uproar if he is mistreated in any way.
- Collective bargaining raises the costs of providing services. We must eliminate collective bargaining rights, that way unions can't blackmail employers into doing what they want.
If you want to get an idea of just how dangerous the unions are, just look at what's happened in our public school systems over the past few years. Governor Scott Walker stood up and challenged the teacher unions in Wisconsin. Walker displayed world-class mental toughness in the face of having his life and livelihood threatened by the same people who educate Wisconsin's children. I was in Madison outside of the capitol building during the teacher's protests, and I talked to more than a dozen teachers. All of them told me the same thing: they said they had the right to collective bargaining and to their job. When I asked them where job performance fit into the equation, I barely got a reply. They looked at me as though they didn't understand the question.
And that's one of the biggest problems unions create: the idea that members have a right to a job, like it's an entitlement awarded at birth. And these are smart people; professional educators; many with advanced degrees. These are the people spending eight hours a day with our kids, and they honestly believe the government owes them a job. It was a similar situation last year in Chicago when the teachers went on strike for seven consecutive school days forcing 350,000 school children out of the classroom.
The Supreme Court ruling in Harris v. Quinn is a great victory, but it's just the beginning. Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, welcomed the ruling, saying, "We applaud these homecare providers' effort to convince the Supreme Court to strike down this constitutionally-dubious scheme, thus freeing thousands of homecare providers from unwanted union control."
The future belongs to the states who become 'Right to Work states,' where unions have no power.