Yesterday Governor Inslee proved his allegiance to the labor unions that spent millions to help elect him by signing SB 6199.  The bill, which was requested by labor union executives in 2014, is an end run around the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Harris v. Quinn that gave in-home caregivers the right to choose whether to pay a union to represent them. 

Senate Bill 6199 strips caregivers of their right to choose and once again forces caregivers to pay for union representation they do not want.  The bill directs the agency that currently manages individual providers, the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), to contract out to a private company that management.  The bill specifies the private company would become the legal employers of those providers. 

As the employees of a private company (instead of quasi employees of the state, as they currently are classified) individual providers would no longer be protected by the right guaranteed them in the Harris v Quinn decision to reject the union.

Compare SB 6199 to SEIU 775's "request" in a confidential memo to Governor Inslee listing ways SEIU wants the state to work around the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling and deprive caregivers of their right to choose: "State could contract with an outside entity to run the home care system, making IPs [individual providers] private-sector employees."

Making caregivers private-sector employees means the 4,000 home caregivers who exercised their right under Harris v Quinn to not pay SEIU will now be forced to, which will add an estimated $2.5 million to the union’s coffers every year. 

Even worse, the bill that is an end run around a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and deprives caregivers of their constitutional right to choose, will cost taxpayers an additional $26 million every two-years.

Demonstrating a level of disingenuity that can only be described as extraordinary (some might call it offensive), after signing SB 6199 yesterday, Governor Inslee responded to a media question asking his thoughts on skirting a court ruling to benefit SEIU, that he didn’t understand the “nature of the question” and that SB 6199 is simply driven by “efficiencies.”

If by efficiencies Governor Inslee means creating yet another layer for in-home caregivers to navigate in order to care for their loved ones, and increasing taxpayer costs by $26 million every biennium, then he’s spot on.  Or maybe by efficiencies he means making it easier for SEIU to deprive caregivers of their rights so the union can collect an extra $2.5 million every year.

The Governor’s signature on SB 6199 was the last in the trifecta of bills that help unions guarantee their forced-dues revenue stream.  Since the Legislature adjourned on March 8, he signed SB 6229 and HB 2751, bills that make it easier for unions to ignore U.S. Supreme Court rulings and keep their forced-dues gravy train chugging right along.