Minnesota Lawyer
Protesters gathered outside the House chambers while the child care uniionization bill was being debated.
A pair of lawsuits seeking to thwart legislation allowing child care providers to unionize will be taken up in U.S. District Court on Thursday morning.
The state of Minnesota is seeking to have each of the cases thrown out. By contrast, the day care providers who brought the lawsuits are asking for a temporary injunction that would keep the law from being implemented while the cases proceed.
The joint hearing is scheduled before U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis. The cases are not directly related, but touch on similar issues.
The first lawsuit, filed in late May on behalf of 11 child care providers, argues that the unionization legislation violates federal labor laws and the U.S. and Minnesota constitutions. In particular, it contends that because only those providers that receive state subsidies will be permitted to vote in a union election, even though the vote could affect all providers, the legislation violates their rights.
The second lawsuit, filed in June on behalf of a dozen day care providers, argues that the law violates the First Amendment rights of workers by potentially requiring them to pay union dues. “The Act creates an actual and imminent risk that Plaintiffs and other family child care providers will have their associational rights put to a vote, will be forced into an exclusive agency relationship with an organization for purposes of petitioning the State, and will be forced to financially support that compulsory representative,” the complaint reads.
The state argues in its motion to dismiss that any lawsuit is premature since the act has yet to be fully implemented. Before there can be a vote on whether workers want union representation, at least 30 percent of potential unit members must indicate support for collective bargaining.
“The case is not ripe for adjudication by the Court and Plaintiffs do not have standing due to the speculative nature of their alleged injury,” the memorandum of law supporting the state’s motion to dismiss reads. “The Complaint claims that Plaintiffs might be harmed if a union and the State reach an agreement pursuant to [the law].”
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 5, which is seeking to represent day care providers, successfully filed a motion to intervene in the case. The legislation also allows for unionization of personal care assistants, which the Service Employees International Union wants to represent, although the lawsuits do not challenge that provision.
