Stateline
The recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in a case of home care assistance in Illinois brought doubts about the working arrangements between workers and countries in nine other countries.
Also included or at least complicated, one of the clearest ways of working to decrease weight a trend of several decades and reverse decreasing rows.
The petitioners in Harris v Quinn health workers were at home who do not want to join a union, although most of his colleagues had voted to join.
According to state law non-unionized workers are still on their "fair share" is needed to help pay for collective bargaining and other activities to benefit the work.
The decision was on the status of workers. Though his work is driven by his patients, health care in the home from Medicaid, most employees, a federal-state program to be covered.
Workers Union saw the donors jointly by the state and its patients. Based on this point have organized in 10 states as the state workers, the public service unions.
However, the Supreme Court Force decided that the health of the unionized workers at home is not "full public employees" and therefore can not be compelled to contribute, like other public employees are subject to a decision in 1977. Them, the court ruled , a violation of their First Amendment rights is.
California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Vermont and Washington all have similar agreements Illinois. Wisconsin and Michigan, and until recently invested.
As the decision last week will affect each of these agreements remains to be seen, even if some of them have signed on a memory support arguments against Illinois earlier this year.
At present, most of the investigation of the impact of the decision. It is expected that workers in states that oppose the union - or at least resist paying their dues - will raise similar lawsuits against the regime.
But there room for the States to act. In Illinois, for example, some union agreement, the parents were denied by their patients. If the government just revised health workers working at home independently (not a private company) and paid for by Medicaid to close his contract, he might be able to the new "standard full public employees" to meet space.
"Every parliament is able to change and the governors of all states, a look at how to take it created under the laws of the State of Illinois and the way their own countries," this R. Bigler, director of programs of work and labor said at Cornell University.
However, the impact of the decision on 24 states "right to work" and avoid agreements "fair share" taxpayers are limited.
A photo of the efforts in other states
The unions have focused on the organization of public employees, "not resist more public employers, such as unionization of private-sector employers are" in comparison with the private sector as said Kenneth Dau-Schmidt, an expert in the law works at the Faculty of Law Indiana University Maurer. "The state of Illinois will not resist joining the private sector."
Following the decision last week, however, could organize efforts to workers in other countries face a tough, if not appropriate, including in all.
The decision on the "fair share" rule "makes it difficult to organize it," said Christine Owens-worker advocacy group National Employment Law Project. "It is becoming increasingly difficult for members who pay for the support and for the Union also has functions to carry the entire load."
Meanwhile, the SEIU and AFSCME unions - especially that collected hundreds of thousands of members who may be affected by the decision - have vowed to continue their efforts in organizing homeworkers on.
"No study is in the type of home workers come together to have are a strong voice for good jobs and the quality of care at home," President SEIU Mary Kay Henry said said in a statement on the decision.
Opponents say they will fight for it. "It was certainly seen as a growth area for the public service unions and the labor movement in general," said Ilya Shapiro of the libertarian Cato Institute, which filed a brief in the case against the unions. "This was nipped in the bud."
The Future of Work
More generally, the case is important for the future of the labor movement, which has deepened with enthusiasm in the rapidly growing field of personal care attendants.
The U.S. population is aging, creating a greater demand for health care. An analysis of the U.S. government projected one in four Americans over 60 years up to 2025 to be about aging. All but three states and the District of Columbia have more than 20 percent of the population over 60 years by the time the report.
At the same time, the field of medical care is booming at home.
The Census Bureau of the United States reported in the past week, the number of Americans by 20 percent between 2000 and 2010. According to a report by the Policy AARP long-term care was once published in nursing homes in the last month have 24 states the proportion of their budgets on Medicaid and community services has increased - say 90 percent of seniors that they would rather the attention.
As a result, it is expected that the number of jobs to provide personal care help at home to increase by 70 percent between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
State by state, figures vary, but the overall trend remains: Indiana, an increase of 73 percent in Virginia, an increase of 78 percent, and Oklahoma, see an increase of 67 percent, according to an analysis by the Institute Health Para (PHI), that focuses on the care of older and disabled people.
The projections do not include PHI vast majority of so-called "consumer-workers" who often work independently with respect to those used by the agencies so that the growth be even higher than the projections based on existing surveys.
Almost all health care workers who are underpaid is very little done workersbecame entitled to overtime and began to earn at least minimum wage, thanks to new federal guidelines. The decision not to stop in the past week, they organize to improve their conditions, but it becomes more difficult for unions to bring them into the fold.
"The staff always have a first amendment right to organize," Bigler Cornell said. "These workers are still, even in this quasi-public in accordance with the Constitution an absolute right to organize and join unions."
Opponents agree on much, but they say it will be much harder for the unions to make the case that join the workers.
"You could, on a voluntary basis," Shapiro said of Cato. "While unions have a good business, people may register voluntarily."
Stateline is a nonpartisan non-profit news service Pew Center on the States, the daily reports and analysis on trends in national politics provides.