SIEU, Blagojevich, and the Home-Based Programs

[Guest guest]

Order Highlights Close Ties With SEIU

DECEMBER 15, 2008, 10:51 P.M. ET

By KRIS MAHER and DAVID KESMODEL

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was preparing to issue an executive order

prior to his arrest last week that would have allowed union organizing of

home-care workers that could have benefited a labor union with close ties to

the governor.

The existence of this executive order, though never signed, illustrates the

close ties between the embattled governor and the powerful Service Employees

International Union, the nation's fastest growing labor organization. Last

week, Gov. Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges, including

that his office suggested a deal in which he would be given a job with an

SEIU-affiliated group in exchange for naming a labor-friendly senator to

fill the vacancy left by President-elect Barack Obama.

The executive order would have enabled the SEIU or another union to organize

about 1,200 workers in the state who care for developmentally disabled

people in their homes and would have augmented one signed by the governor in

2003, said Ringuette, an SEIU spokeswoman. The prior order opened

the way for the SEIU to target a far larger number of home health-care

workers. Such workers traditionally aren't covered by federal labor law,

though a number of states have enacted laws in recent years allowing unions

to organize them.

Ms. Ringuette said the SEIU was aware of the executive order but didn't know

what role, if any, the union played in developing it. She said other unions

would have been able to organize the workers as well. But a rival union said

it was unaware of the order, while SEIU staffers and outside experts say the

SEIU had already begun actively seeking the support of workers.

Gov. Blagojevich's press secretary, Lucio Guerrero, didn't respond to

requests for comment.

Bruno, an associate professor of labor and industrial relations at

the University of Illinois-Chicago, said the SEIU had played a role in the

order and had begun trying to organize workers. " They were making progress

on working towards an executive order, and I'm sure that they were expecting

the governor to sign it, " Mr. Bruno said. He said there was nothing illegal

about the SEIU trying to persuade the governor to sign an executive order

that would enable the union to organize more workers.

But cooperation with the governor's office raises questions of unfair

treatment if the union had an advantage over other unions in signing up the

workers. Gov. Blagojevich's prior executive order sparked tensions between

the SEIU and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal

Employees, which also has sought to expand its representation of home

health-care workers in the state.

An Illinois spokesman for AFSCME said the group was unaware of a potential

executive order. More than a year ago, the spokesman said, the union was

contacted by in-home workers interested in forming a union, and it requested

a list of eligible workers from the state. Illinois " refused to provide it,

making it impossible for AFSCME to find the workers to help them organize, "

the spokesman said. " We think all workers should have ... the opportunity to

select the union of their choosing. "

Charlotte Cronin, executive director of Family Support Network of Illinois,

a Peoria-based advocacy group for the developmentally disabled, confirmed

that union organizers knocked on doors this past summer, and that some

relatives of the disabled found them " overly persistent. " She said the

union, which she believed to be SEIU, was able to get home addresses because

they are a matter of public record.

Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@... and Kesmodel at

david.kesmodel@...