The Oregonian
July 23rd, 2014
Two of Oregon's largest public employee unions have stopped collecting dues from thousands of home care workers who didn't belong to the union but had been required to help pay the costs of union representation.
Oregon branches of Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees both took the action following a decision last month by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court ruled 5-4 that home-care workers in Illinois represented by SEIU could not be required to pay dues if they did not want to join the union. The decision only covered a group of workers who aren't directly employed by government but are supported by public funds.
The biggest impact involved as many as 26,000 home care and child-care workers represented by SEIU Local 503 in Salem. Union spokeswoman Jill Bakken said the union still isn't sure the court's ruling applies to Oregon but took the action out of "an over-abundance of caution."