The alarming trend of politicians forcing workers into union ranks continues in Illinois as Governor Pat Quinn -- in order to win Big Labor's political support -- is resurrecting the sordid legacy of disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich (and Gray Davis of California) subverting workers' rights to benefit forced dues-hungry union bosses.

Quinn recently signed an executive order arbitrarily reclassifying state-reimbursed in-home health-care providers as state employees -- thereby opening them up to forced unionism under state law.  Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union organizers, armed by the state with the addresses of Illinois's nearly 3,500 in-home health-care providers, are competing to corral home health-care providers into compulsory union membership by going door-to-door to solicit support for their respective unions.

Pam Harris, a mother who stays home to take care of her son with special needs, was visited by two aggressive out-of-state SEIU organizers at her front door.  Understandably, Ms. Harris is worried that the Detroit-style labor relations that destroyed America's auto industry could also destroy her right to care for her son as she wants. (To say nothing of the union dues she will be forced to pay for the "privilege.")

Because she does not live in a state with Right to Work protections, if SEIU union bosses are successful in corralling all home health-care providers into forced dues membership, Ms. Harris will be forced to pay tribute to union bosses just to continue to take care of her own son -- even if she refrains from formal union membership.

However, as many Freedom@Work readers may already be aware, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Just last month, National Right to Work President Mark Mix reiterated in the Wall Street Journal NRTW's previous warnings that union bosses are working to unionize the health-care industry and that under Obamacare, the very thing that is happening in Illinois will happen nationwide:

Following [the Davis/Blagojevich] playbook, pending government-run health care bills create a "personal care attendants workforce advisory panel" that will likely impose union affiliation on hundreds of thousands of folks like Ms. Harris to qualify for a newly created "community living assistance services and support (CLASS)" reimbursement plan.

Ms. Sebelius will be taking her marching orders from the numerous union officials who are guaranteed seats on the various federal panels (such as the personal care panel mentioned above) charged with recommending health-care policies. Big Labor will play a central role in directing federal health-care policy...

Most Freedom@Work readers are already aware of a growing scandal involving the pro-forced unionism Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) in New York, Baltimore, Washington, and now, California. For those who missed it, ACORN representatives were caught on camera giving advice to undercover journalists on how to open an illegal brothel, launder its profits, and commit a host of other illegal activities.

According to The Washington Examiner, teacher union officials have contributed over 1.3 million dollars (in mostly forced union dues) to ACORN since 2005.

We decided to do a little digging into union financial disclosure forms on the Department of Labor's website. After examining union financial records, it turns out that officials of several high-profile unions diverted large sums of mostly forced union dues dollars to the same ACORN offices in Washington and New York that are implicated in the hidden camera scandal. 

In 2008, for example, the AFL-CIO New York City Teacher Union gave a total of $406,730 to an ACORN office in Brooklyn that was later exposed by undercover journalists at Big Government. This contribution was classified under "representational activities," meaning it was funded by teachers forced to pay dues to teacher union bosses. In states without a Right to Work law like New York, employees who don't join unions can still be forced to pay union dues if union bosses acquire monopoly bargaining privileges.

The powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has also made financial contributions to ACORN. In 2008, the SEIU transferred $12,500 to ACORN's Washington, DC office for "consulting fees and expenses." Once again, this was classified under "representational activities." The DC ACORN office is also implicated in the massive hidden camera scandal.

Finally, the NEA union hierarchy made its own significant financial contribution to ACORN in 2008. According to Department of Labor disclosure forms, the NEA bosses transferred $78,000 to ACORN's Brooklyn office.

Because only the 2008 union disclosure forms are easily searchable, these shady transactions may be the tip of the iceberg. But we shouldn't be surprised by the Big Labor-ACORN connection: after all, their organizational approaches and ideology are strikingly similar. In 2008, National Review's Stanley Kurtz described one of ACORN's favored "organizing" tactics:

Perhaps most mischievously, says Stern, Acorn uses banking regulations to pressure financial institutions into massive “donations” that it uses to finance supposedly non-partisan voter turn-out drives.

Anyone familiar with Big Labor's corporate campaigns will immediately recognize this strategy. Like ACORN, Big Labor's operatives frequently threaten non-union companies and workers with harassment, PR broadsides, and union-instigated protests with the goal of forcing them to knuckle under to forced unionism.

These financial connections between Big Labor and ACORN highlight the fundamental injustices of forced unionism. Every day, unwilling workers are forced to pay dues to union bosses or be fired from their jobs while their hard-earned money underwrites corruption and general thuggery.

The National Right to Work Foundation just filed a "friend of the court" brief supporting employee free choice at the U.S. Supreme Court in the Chamber v. Brown case. At issue is a controversial 9th Circuit decision that basically forces coercive union organizing on private companies receiving state funds.

Foundation attorneys have successfully helped contest similiar laws in Wisconsin, and through this brief in New York. Additionally, with 13 trips to the U.S. Supreme Court on record, most recently the 2007 Davenport defensive victory, Foundation attorneys are no strangers to the highest court in the land.