Minneapolis, MN (October 30, 2014) – Today, a group of home-based personal care providers challenging a state law that authorizes the forcible unionization of Minnesota’s 27,000 care providers have asked a federal appeals court to overrule a lower court’s ruling issued last week in their case.

With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Teri Bierman and eight other providers from around the state appealed the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota judge’s ruling denying the providers’ request for a court injunction that would immediately halt implementation of the law.

The appeal is the latest development in a federal lawsuit filed by the nine providers challenging a state law intended to designate the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as the monopoly political representative of thousands of providers in the state.

The homecare providers provide homecare services to their sons and daughters who receive state assistance to help pay for their care. For example, two of the homecare providers, Teri Bierman and Scott Price, both provide care to their daughters with cerebral palsy. The suit challenges the forced-unionism scheme on the grounds that it violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of free political expression and association.

On August 27, the SEIU won a majority of votes in a controversial write-in unionization election for Minnesota caregivers. Although nearly 27,000 care providers were eligible to vote under the new law, only 13 percent of the total number of eligible voters approved SEIU affiliation. Consequently, SEIU officials are now empowered to deal with the State for all 27,000 Minnesota homecare providers. Caregivers who didn’t vote or voted against the union are forced to accept the SEIU’s «representation.»

«Forcing folks who care for their relatives into forced union representation is a slap in the face of fundamental American principles we hold dear,» said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. «The appeals court should halt implementation of Governor Mark Dayton’s political payback to SEIU bosses and protect providers’ right to remain free from unwanted union affiliation.»

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 more than 250 cases nationwide per year.