LOS ANGELES, Calif. (April 2, 2002) — After scores of home care providers contacted the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation regarding a class action suit seeking to overturn a new statewide forced unionization scheme, Foundation attorneys filed an amended complaint adding additional plaintiffs and claims against the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) and Los Angeles County.

The civil rights class action suit challenges, on constitutional grounds, the entire scheme that arbitrarily deems private care providers as “public employees for collective bargaining purposes only” and imposes forced union representation and forced union dues as a job condition.

Even if the scheme were found to be constitutional, Foundation attorneys have discovered that SEIU Local 434B union officials have failed to provide adequate financial disclosure and have been seizing dues (from 80,000 home care providers to elderly and disabled citizens) in amounts well in excess of its own agreement with Los Angeles County.

“This compulsory dues rip-off scheme is a slap in the face to working people who just want to work without union interference,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Those who want to be affiliated with a union should have that right, but a vast majority of the 80,000 home care providers never voted in favor of a union.”

The additional named plaintiffs include Carla West (a single African-American parent who cares for her elderly mother), Eden Rosen, and Brenda Davis. They are joining a suit originally brought by Janos Hummel against the AFL-CIO-affiliated Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 434B, the Personal Assistance Services Council (PASC) of Los Angeles County, and Attorney General Bill Lockyer, along with several other California officials.

Foundation attorneys will soon file for a preliminary injunction to stop union fee seizures from non-members.

The AFL-CIO has hailed the forced unionization of the 80,000 home care providers as organized labor’s single largest organizing victory ever. Sacramento and San Diego counties and, more recently, Oregon and Washington state, have since adopted virtually identical schemes.

The class-action lawsuit asks that SEIU Local 434B’s entire contract with PASC, and as well as its ability to collect forced dues from independent home care providers, be revoked as an unconstitutional infringement on workers’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association. National Right to Work Foundation attorneys are also demanding all illegally seized union dues be returned to the plaintiffs.

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.