Minneapolis, MN (August 19, 2014) – Today, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota will consider a motion brought by a group of home-based personal care providers to immediately halt the unionization of the state’s homecare providers.

With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Teri Bierman and eight other providers from around the state filed a federal lawsuit last month against Governor Mark Dayton and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

The suit challenges a law that authorizes the forcible unionization of the state’s providers on the grounds that it violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of free political expression and association.

Today, the court will consider the homecare providers’ motion for a temporary injunction immediately halting implementation of the law intended to designate SEIU officials as the monopoly political representative of thousands of providers in the state. The SEIU seeks to unionize the providers via a mail-in vote that started on August 1.

In late June, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in Harris v. Quinn, a Foundation case challenging whether Illinois homecare providers can be forced into union ranks against their will. The Court held that individuals who indirectly receive state subsidies based on their clientele cannot be forced to pay compulsory union fees. The Court’s ruling frees home-based childcare and personal care providers from forced union dues and fees in at least 13 other states.

“In effect Governor Dayton is picking the SEIU as the lobbyists for Minnesota’s personal care providers as payback for the union bosses who have been some of his most generous political supporters,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The court should immediately halt this violation of homecare providers’ fundamental right of free association.”

The hearing will be held in Courtroom 15E at the Minneapolis Federal Courthouse at 9:30 a.m.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.