The National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center joins the Midland-based Mackinac Center Legal Foundation in fighting to end union dues paid by independent Michigan daycare providers.

The following is the official press release:

Lansing, Mich. April 6, 2010 - The National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of home-based day care providers who are protesting an effort by the state of Michigan to unilaterally unionize day care providers who provide care to low-income families receiving state subsidies.

The case Loar v. DHS is on appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court. The case involves a lawsuit originally brought by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation against the Michigan Department of Human Services on behalf of home-based day care providers who were forced into a government employees union. As part of this union, they had dues withheld from state subsidy payments provided to low-income families. The day care providers challenged this scheme, but the Michigan Court of Appeals dismissed the case without explanation.

At least 40,000 home-based business owners and millions of dollars were affected by the DHS union effort to designate the providers as government workers for unionization and dues-collecting purposes.

"At a time when families are struggling and jobs are leaving the state, we find it unconscionable that a state agency would aid and abet the diversion of taxpayer dollars into big labor's pockets," said NFIB/Michigan State Director Charlie Owens. "If this isn't stopped now, labor unions, with the help of the state of Michigan, will go after other private businesses and force them to join unions as a condition of receiving state payments for services and goods provided."

The money collected from these businesses is estimated by the Wall Street Journal to be around $3.7 million annually. Instead of that money going to the providers, it now goes to a union that does little to represent the interests of these providers.

"The union was formed after DHS entered into an agreement creating a new government entity that transformed home-based child care providers into government employees. This was done without the passage of any legislation, and therefore does not pass constitutional muster. DHS does not have the authority to simply deem home-based day care providers government workers," said Karen Harned, executive director, NFIB Small Business Legal Center.

Unfortunately, schemes like this one are quickly becoming the norm rather than the exception. At least 15 states, including Michigan, have some sort of compulsory unionization effort affecting a particular industry.

"In today's political climate, unions have garnered undue influence at the executive and legislative branches of government. In some cases, the last hope for small business owners is in the legal arena, and that is why the Legal Center will remain on the forefront of the fight against the big labor movement," said Harned.

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The NFIB Small Business Legal Center is a 501(c)(3) organization created to protect the rights of America's small business owners by providing advisory material on legal issues and by ensuring that the voice of small business is heard in the nation's courts. The National Federation of Independent Business is the nation's leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals.