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How Far Does SEIU’s ‘Forced Unionization’ Go? Wait Until You Hear These Stories Involving Skimming Money From Medicaid Checks

Sep. 28, 2012 12:11pm Becket Adams

Last November, TheBlaze’s Madeleine Morgenstern reported on “forced unionization” involving SEIU and the parents of two disabled children. Many of you were outraged. Now it seems those parents weren’t alone. And the overall practice is getting more attention as lawyers are getting involved.

Four years ago, Steven Glossop moved in with his mother Linda to care for her after she suffered a stroke while recovering from heart surgery. Her condition requires constant attention and her son, whether at work or elsewhere, makes sure someone (usually his wife) is there to help.

But the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is making life difficult for the Glossops.

“The Glossops, by virtue of getting Medicaid money from the state, are members of the SEIU thanks to a unionization scheme orchestrated in 2005 when Jennifer Granholm was governor,” writes Jack Spencer for Michigan Capitol Confidential.

Caregiver Steven Glossop Says the SEUI Takes a Portion of his Caregiver Medicaid Checks

Yes, that Jennifer Granholm (AP)

“This whole thing just gets me,” said Steven Glossop. “It’s hard to believe the union could get away with something like this. They (the union) can’t do anything about things like working conditions. They have no idea what goes on inside our house each day.”

“I’d say the biggest effect that being in this union has had on me is them taking money from our checks. To me, it’s just thievery,” he added.

And the Glossop family is not alone. They are actually one of two families being represented by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation in a fight over what they say are unfair labor practices.

“The legal action asks the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) to reverse the decision that recognized the forced unionization of those workers nearly seven years ago,” Spencer notes.

“It also asks that the money being taken from the Medicaid checks of disabled and elderly people in Michigan be immediately ended and for the return of about six months’ worth of dues, or about $3 million,” he adds.

The SEIU, according to the MCC report, enacted a “forced unionization” of Michigan’s home-based caregivers (i.e. people like Steven Glossop) back in 2005, meaning they get a cut of the Medicaid checks caregivers are given to provide home care.

Want to guess how much the SEIU has taken in as a direct result of this “forced unionization” scheme? Try $32 million.

But wait! There’s more.

Much of that $32 million has been put towards Proposal 4: a proposal that will make the “forced unionization” scheme an official part of the state constitution.

Pretty nifty, right?

“The union is trying to get this in the state constitution because earlier this year Gov, Rick Snyder signed legislation into law that ended the forced unionization. The SEIU later took the issue to federal court and was allowed to continue taking the money,” Spencer notes.

And you better believe the SEIU has pushed back against complaints from people like Glossop, arguing that unionization will ensure the elderly and the disabled can stay in their homes and that background checks will make things safer.

Funny thing though, there are already fed programs in place that ensure both of these things.

“Who would I want to have a background check done on?” Steven Glossop said. “I have no need for background checks.”

Indeed, according to MCC, an estimated 75 percent of the people enrolled in the Home Help Program are friends or family of the person being taken care of.

“Back when I received the first check I noticed that dues had been taken out of it,” Steven Glossop said. “I thought, ‘I’m in a union, that could be good.’ I thought I must be a state employee. The only other union I was ever in was the Teamsters union. That was when I worked for a beverage company. Back then, they (the Teamsters) had to negotiate for us.”

“Later I saw that all the union (SEIU) was doing was taking our money,” he said. “I wonder what most taxpayers would say if they knew that some of taxpayer dollars being paid to help families out is being taken by the union.”

Glossop said the union sent him an informational packet detailing how it spends its money. Among the things included in the breakdown of expenses were union cards.

“I finally decided I wanted to get out of the union,” he said. “I called the union up and told them. They sent me a packet. It was full of information about why I should stay in the union.”

“It felt like they were bullying me. Then I found out that, even if I left the union, I’d still have to keep paying what they call a fair share. This would be 66 percent of what the dues had been,” he added.

“To me, it seems like the union is power hungry,” Glossop said. “I can’t believe all of this stuff. I’ve been forced into this union that I never signed up for. It seems like we all just keep losing more and more freedoms and liberties.”

Glossop says although a union representative recently contacted him to see if he had received all the information he had requested, he believes their new found concern for his situation has to do with the upcoming election.

“I’m just hoping at some point this will be done with,” he said.

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

Front page photo source courtesy the AP.

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Comments (86)

JULIKINS209
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:34pm
This is also happening here in California.

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- olderjarhead
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:57pm
  I think this kind of stuff happens in Venezuela also. Its just not as prolific there.
  
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- yougottabekidding
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 2:18pm
  So now the government can force you to join a group you do not want to join and have them steal your money, with the blessing of a judge.
  This is wrong in so many ways that need to be rectified!
  
  Report this comment
- hayesstephen
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 2:19pm
  How many of you getting robbed voted democrat or did not vote. Let me know. How many of you think this is right and the Union is right?
  
  Report this comment
- turkey13
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 2:40pm
  Whenthe ALCIO gave me the finger I got out (Texas Right to work state) and that $23.00 a month was like getting a raise. All these proplr need to do is get their Congress person to vote for right to work laws.
  
  Report this comment
- desertspeaks
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 2:57pm
  It’s called THEFT! forced contracts are ILLEGAL!
  Any law repugnant to the constitution is null and void as though it had never been written, it has no force of law and any judge that upholds such a law is guilty of treason against his oath of office, the oath that says they will uphold and defend the state and federal constitutions!! yeah that oath!!
  
  Report this comment
- loriann12
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 4:45pm
  I guess I’d better start budgeting to NOT receive my son’s SSI check…if this ever came to Texas, I’d just stop the check.
  
  Report this comment
- idarusskie
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 5:55pm
  that sure taught the republicans a lesson by not voting for Mccain.
  
  Report this comment
- idarusskie
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 5:56pm
  what would it take to change the union to a different one?
  
  Report this comment
- arrjay
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:10pm
  Likewise in CT.
  Our Governor Malloy has followed in Obama’s footsteps by illegally issuing two Executive Orders; No. 9 and No. 10 to do the exact same thing, organize care-givers paid from government funds.
  EO 9 is for care-givers of children and EO 10 is for care-givers of adults.
  #9: The dues will be collected by the state from funds budgeted for Care-4-Kids.
  And #10 from “various programs administered by the Dept of Social Services and Dept of Developmental Services.”
  
  Report this comment
- Salamander
  Posted on September 29, 2012 at 3:01am
  IDARUSSKIE has a potentially GREAT IDEA! TRULY PROFOUND! If ‘they’ have won in the law, to the extent that it is not presently possible to reverse things, why not FORM A COMPETING UNION! Surely, they States won’t enforce an SEIU ONLY policy!!! We could beat them at their own game or OVERWHELM THE SYSTEM. Why not FORM 50,000 unions to compete with SEIU, 1,000 per state? Why not form ONE UNION PER PERSON, kind of an ‘LC’ hoard, and just blow the courts out of business? TRULY PROFOUND!!! GREAT IDEA! Way to go IDARUSSKIE! Way to go BLAZE!!!
  
  Report this comment
- stormcrow53
  Posted on September 29, 2012 at 10:15am
  I regret having to utilize the Blaze but I couldn’t let this pass.
  While the instinctive reation is that the collusion between the Foreign Dictator’s regime and the SEIU is both criminal and reprehensible (and it is) the truth is that at this point in time unions both public and private are merely agencies and arms of the Marxist administration. The true immorallity of this article is that when you are the recipient of government funding (printed currency with no fundamental value or worth) and the government decides to allocate a portion of these funds to another agency of the government your acceptance of the funding makes you subject (in all its senses) to the tyrannical whims of that government. The complaint is invalid. And fraudulent. In the 1850s the Democrats were advocating to house, clothe, feed and medicate certain racial groups in the nation. My how little things have changed. Get your Obama phones now while the supply lasts.
  
  Report this comment
- DeniseR55
  Posted on September 29, 2012 at 6:31pm
  hey are pushing hard on ALL of the private home companion service companies here in PA too! SEIU is actually threatening some of them by sending out negative(false)reports in the communities about certain servicers trying to starve the companies out of business.
  
  Report this comment
- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on September 29, 2012 at 8:21pm
  Thats why all unions need to be forcibly shut down. They are organized crime made legal.
  
  Report this comment
Joel Knows
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:28pm
SEIU is working to make it mandatory for a stay-at-home spouse to have to join the union, and if you have children and stay at home to care for them you are a daycare worker. Now if you home school your children you will have to join the teacher’s union. They may not represent you, but sure enough there will be dues.

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- Joel Knows
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:50pm
  Don’t forget the SEIU members are in charge of looking after the voting machines in a large number of states I was reading. Who holds the leash of the foxes in the hen house???
  
  Report this comment
- Orwellian States
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:57pm
  If a person stays home with her kids, and they are not on a state payroll or get any sort of government check, how would a union go about collecting or extorting the “dues?”
  
  Report this comment
- Prosecute_Constitutional_Treason_In_Washington
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 2:02pm
  If patriots don’t take back the gov. by force, words are worthless, no one is going to want to live here except the freeloaders, commies, gangs, drug dealers, illegals, bankers, gov. workers, union leaders, and DC high hat thugs.
  
  Report this comment
- rc30
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:44pm
  I moved out of Michigan in 2009. I could not take the welfair anymore. Free car free repairs on there homes. Drinking on there front porch and smoking weed. I’m a plumber putting all this stuff in for free and the state pays for it. There was all ways someone every week telling me how to work the system. In Jan of 2009 it came to a head. Me and this man and woman got into it bad. After telling me how stupid I was for not taking advantage of the system I lost it. I got to a point where I felt there was no hope. When most people think they are owed for doing nothing hope is lost. My home town of Flint MI is the worst place in the USA for all most all crime. I would say its from the policies of the people in charge. I miss home so much. But after all most 4 years in west Texas. I have to say I could not move back. My son gets A&B he has good friends and works. He don’t do the things he did 3 years ago. It was getting bad in trouble all the time grades sucked. So yes I think the LIBS have done a great job on making the people of the USA feel they are owed for just being born.
  
  Report this comment
- Salamander
  Posted on September 29, 2012 at 3:05am
  A FEU of us could really make a difference! If EVERYBODY formed their own union, FEU (Free Enterprise Union) to compete with SEIU, maybe we could send them to the cleaners!
  
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- Salamander
  Posted on September 29, 2012 at 3:08am
  Better name might be the FEIU (Free Enterprise International Union)! SEIU, MOVE OVER, that light at the end of the tunnel is the free enterprise train coming your way!
  
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jackact
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:26pm
The obvious solution:
Enforce the rule that monthly union dues (for all unions, public & municipal) cannot be automatically debited from payroll.
And mandate that those unions allow their own members to send union dues themselves.
Game over.

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- Salamander
  Posted on September 29, 2012 at 3:03am
  Hey, maybe SEIU needs a little COMPETITION! Form your own union, and have the ‘dues’ sent to yourself! Surely, SEIU cannot argue that they are the ONLY GAME IN TOWN?
  
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TEIN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:23pm
Mafia, Union..same thing different structure……

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- cosette
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 3:45pm
  The Mafia is much more respectable.
  
  Report this comment
- Lt_Scrounge
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 7:49pm
  Do a search for Tony Boyle, Jock Yablonski and the UMWA. You’ll discover that some unions aren’t anything more than an arm of the Mafia. Boyle was the UMWA president and Yablonski was running against him in the election. When it became obvious that Yablonski would probably win, Boyle had him, his wife and daughter murdered in their home by his mafia friends.
  
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Cavallo
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:20pm
Move out of Michigan.. I know its not easy, but in the long run I think they’d be happier living in a right to work state. They might take a temporary financial hit, but in the long run I think it would be best. Maybe with some national attention this gentleman could get offered a job somewhere he is not thuggishly raped by the Bolshevik Union. Most likely the government will tell these poor people to lay back and enjoy it.

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- bgotts27
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 3:54pm
  Cavallo, there is no reason they should have to move.
  
  By what logic does it make sense for someone to have to move to a different state because a union in their current state is forcibly taking their money?
  
  The solution is to correct what is wrong, NOT to run away from the thief.
  
  Report this comment
- KangarooJack
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 11:03pm
  I like my little Village. Michigan is a Great State…if not for Detroit/Flint/etc. I’m sure that New York is a Great State if not for NYNY. I’m sure EVERY State has their Cities that influence Law for the rest of the State. A huge block of people, financed via free pizza/spending $ and bus rides in to VOTE UNION…while many of this Union ‘Army’ haven’t held a job in years/decades/NEVER-Generational Welfare.
  
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ricckky
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:20pm
This liar promotes this crap–the liar and all his ilks are out of control-With the media, and the ignorance of about 40% of America –I’m afraid America, as we new it is gone for good—I hope all you commies are happy. It will be too late when you finally realize what this SATAN HAS DONE–AND ALL YOUR FREEDOMS ARE GONE. I never thought this would happen!!!!!!! Wake up America!!!!!!!—–This sociopath is truly the DEVIL!!!

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term limits for congress
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:15pm
Mr. Glossop may have some severe knee injuries in his future. He better sit down/shut up.

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thegreatcarnac
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:13pm
Long ago when I was young I was in a union due to my job. It did not take me long to see the problems a union causes. They tried to bully the company and it’s own members when they did not tow the ‘party-line’. The main thing I noticed was that seniority was everything;….they wanted the company to reward and promote people because they were senior. It did not make any difference that the man the union wanted to see promoted was a blooming idiot or a trouble-maker. They demanded seniority ruled in everything. THe company ignored them as best they could and promoted whom they deemed fit to promote. They endured grievances and law suits just to promote people and run their own business. THey won all the time but they had to keep lawyers on duty to fight the union’s whims. I did not stay long and got another job. Thank God.

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- Madmilo
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 5:56pm
  Hmmm? Did you happen to work for Greyhound Bus Lines? I did in the late 80′s, Same thing going on there. A once respected company is now all but gone thanks to the unions. Piss on them.
  
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JeannieD
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:11pm
I thought people cared for their elderly parents because it’s the right thing to do, not for a paycheck from the government

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- olderjarhead
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:22pm
  I’m sure this guy would honor his mother, whether he got a crummy $385 (minus dues), or not. He is participating in a State program that allows people to stay in their home, rather than become a ward of the state. A nursing home would cost the state more in one day, than what this guy gets in a month. At least he is contributing. Now, can we get people to do meanial tasks for welfare, food stamps, Obama phones, rent subsidy, heating oil, and all the other programs, that almost make it not worth working for a living?
  
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- SLAPTHELEFT
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 3:18pm
  Sir you are asking way to much now.
  
  They would need a larger check to get off their collective a$$es.
  
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Cavallo
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:05pm
Make sure you thank a vet for the *snort* freedoms.. you *lol* all enjoy. Lovely that so many people sacrificed for the *ROTFL* liberties we have.

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- olderjarhead
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:16pm
  Succinct. People who think this is “the land of the free”, are sorely mistaken.
  
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olderjarhead
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:57pm
Of all the stories I read about government corruption, lies, stealing, paybacks, etc.. This story shocks me the most. How could this not be illegal? This is unbelievable. WTF? The whole system of government just reeks. Maybe it would be best if the whole house of cards, just caved in on itself. A new start at this point seems preferable to fixing this rotten sytem we have now.

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- Cemoto78
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:29pm
  Public/ private partnership in extortion. Be very wary whenever you hear those buzzwords; Public/ Prive partnerships(s)
  
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progressiveslayer
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:54pm
Okay simpleton libs this one’s for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7T6gACFd-U&feature=related

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Serenabit
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:54pm
So let’s review: In order for me to care for my 72 year old widowed mother I need to join the SEIU and pay their dues, or they can just take their “fair share” directly from my mother’s medicare benefits. Does that make my 72 year old heart patient mother a member of the SEIU?

When does this corruption end? Sure glad I moved out of Michigan 10 years ago. I saw the writing on the wall with Granholm.

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mike551
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:54pm
Yet another example of union thuggery. IMPEACH THE MUSLIM OBAMA NOW!!!!

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Scottt01
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:53pm
SEIU, it is like the demon that is possessing the DNC from within. Won’t be long and the DNC will fall by the wayside and the SEIU will be the new political party.

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Amazingoly
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:39pm
Granholm – worst governor – ever. Criminal charges needed to stop this illegal practice.

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- CatB
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:50pm
  I agree .. I moved OUT of Michigan in her first term .. sure as heck didn’t want to live thru the second .. best MOVE ever! I went back for a visit last summer .. through the new governor (R) is trying he is meeting resistance to any positive change from the union thugs. It is still going downhill fast. My once lovely hometown is no longer lovely or safe.
  
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saneromeo
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:39pm
It’s kind of scary when you realize that you may have to sacrifice your financial best interests and refuse to work so as to disallow an evil system from being implemented…
http://saneromeo.wordpress.com/

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cv7334
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:38pm
Same thing here in Illinois!! I care for non relatives and they take “non-member” dues from my check every pay period!! They also bullied Illinois to give care givers health ins at NO COST(no premiums, very low co pays) to the members!! Which on principal I DID NOT enroll in! I can’t believe that they got that through Illinois, we are BROKE!!!!

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MrKnowItAll
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:32pm
When my Wife would not Protest for them after being bugged by phone constantly. The checks stopped all together. It took four months and numerous calls and letters to get them back. Of course with the Union Dues still being taken out. 100% Truth Here.

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smokeysmoke
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:28pm
there is a word for this…. its called EXTORTION…. its a shakedown… THERE SHOULD ALWAYSS BE A CHOICE TO JOIN A UNION, but i can understand if a union wants to write a “CONTRACT” with their members so they stay for a time period…. but forcing someone to join, and pay you money is gangster style extortion

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Robert Hawk
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:28pm
Forced Unionization = Forced Slavery

I’m glad I live in a right to work state

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Robert Hawk
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:26pm
Forced Unionization = Marxist enslavement.
I glad I live in a right to work state.
I am reminded of Revelation chapter 20 “each individual is judged according to their works” Ms Granholm might want to think about that.

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Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:26pm
the unions are legalized criminal syndicates.

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- progressiveslayer
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:32pm
  That’s right and they’re also monopolies and shouldn’t even exist,private or public sector.
  
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RightUnite
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:25pm
Not surprised at all….

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PJL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 12:19pm
They are doing that to me here in California also, I care for my mother and they take money from us…no way to get out of SEIU. What a shameful racket.

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- grimmster
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 1:04pm
  @PJL.
  No disrespect, but do the words,”i will not comply’, mean anything,stand up and stop kow-towing to the unions,fight them, either by hook or by crook.Its way past time to destroy the unions in this country,all the are,are fronts for communist interests……
  
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- PJL
  Posted on September 28, 2012 at 3:17pm
  @grimmster Lofty talk from someone who dose not know what I have been though over this. Please don’t quot Beck to me and think it clever.
  
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