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Epoch Times
02-05-2025
- Health
- Epoch Times
California In-Home Caregivers Allege They Were Duped Into Union Membership and Dues
Three class action lawsuits have been filed in California alleging that some individuals providing personal care to their invalid family members were misled into joining a union. The cases will be heard by the Superior Court of California in El Dorado, Sacramento, and Fresno counties. Representing the plaintiffs in all three cases are attorneys Shella Arcabes and Ravi Prasad. Both work for the Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank and legal activism group. Arcabes told The Epoch Times, 'Since the Supreme Court's 2018 Janus v. AFSCME decision, the unions have been acting deceitfully and using stall tactics to stem the losses of members and money.' In the For years, unions have Related Stories 11/14/2024 2/25/2025 'Every employee has the right to decide whether he or she will join a union. They don't have to give dues to a union that uses a portion of that money to advocate for causes and policies that the individual worker does not support. We think people should be aware of these rights,' Prasad told The Epoch Times. A Cost-Effective Service Through the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, the government pays individuals to provide in-home personal care services to loved ones, neighbors, and friends. The The client hires the caregiver of his choice, and the government Funding for the IHSS program comes from federal, state, and local sources. The state of California issues all checks for individual provider payments and withholds a portion of the payment for applicable taxes and union dues. It is the responsibility of the union to provide the state with a list of dues-paying union members every month or pay period. The newly hired caregivers must attend an employee orientation session conducted by government officials at which a public employee union representative explains the advantages of union membership to the workers. Attorney Shella Arcabes. Courtesy of Freedom Foundation Some Representative Cases According to the legal pleadings in the Kendrick wrote the words 'Do not want to participate' on the signature line of the union membership forms she was handed. A short time later, Kendrick noticed that union dues were being taken out of her paycheck. Kendrick sent an opt-out letter to the United Domestic Workers of America (UDW), who responded that she had agreed to the dues deduction and that they would continue to be taken from her paycheck every month for one year from her signup date. Claudiu Hotea has been taking care of a member of his family as an IHSS caregiver since 2011. At his new employee orientation session, Hotea signed up for union membership after being told by a UDW representative that he had to join the union if he wanted to receive benefits such as health insurance, the complaint alleges. In May 2023, Hotea sent an opt-out letter to UDW requesting to withdraw his membership and cease dues deductions. Mr. Hotea retained counsel in December 2023, who sent a letter to UDW demanding that the withholding of dues stop and that UDW provide Hotea with a copy of his membership agreement. On Dec. 27, 2023, the Membership Resource Department of UDW sent Hotea's lawyer a copy of his membership agreement dated March 28, 2019. According to the complaint, the signature at the bottom of the membership agreement does not belong to Hotea, who contends he never signed a membership agreement on that date. UDW eventually stopped taking dues from Mr. Hotea's paycheck in May 2024. The United Domestic Workers of America did not respond to a request for comment. Dues Allegedly Deducted Without Consent In another Attorney Ravi Prasad. Courtesy of Freedom Foundation Muravskii, an employee of the University of California Davis Health, claims he signed a union membership form that did not contain any reference to paying dues. When Muravskii noticed dues were being taken out of his paycheck, he sent a letter to the union withdrawing his membership and requesting that the withholding stop. According to the complaint, 'On March 28, 2024, AFSCME 3299 sent him a membership form that they purported he signed, containing dues payment obligations up until a certain window period each year.' Muravskii claims he did not sign this form or any other form containing dues payment obligations and that the signature on the form 'does not reflect how he signs his name.' The complaint asserts that Muravskii would not have signed any form that would have required him to subsidize union political speech. Another employee of U.C. Davis Health, Swartika Lal, sent a letter to AFSCME 3299 in February 2024 withdrawing her membership in the union and requesting that the dues deduction from her paycheck cease. Hearing nothing from the union, Lal called Local 3299 and was told that it had received her revocation letter and the dues deductions would stop in 'two or three pay cycles,' according to the complaint. Seeing no halt to the deductions, in August 2024, Lal hired a lawyer who sent a demand letter requesting that the union cease the deductions and refund, with interest, any dues deducted since February 2024, up until the deductions cease. As of April 21, 2025, the union continues to take dues out of Lal's paycheck. AFSCME did not respond to a request for comment. Problems in Fresno County A third According to the complaint, in 2017, Lozano received an unsolicited visit to her house from a representative of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2015. The complaint alleges that the representative tried to persuade her to join the union, going so far as to electronically sign a membership agreement on Lozano's behalf without showing her the document or explaining that membership in the union entailed the deduction of dues from her paycheck. In mid-2024, Lozano realized she did not have to be a union member or pay union dues. She sent two opt-out letters to Local 2015 and spoke on the phone with union officials several times, trying to cancel her membership and stop the dues collection. As of April 28, 2025, union dues are still being deducted from Lozano's paycheck. Shirley Marsh is an IHSS provider furnishing home-based care to her disabled grandson. According to the complaint, Marsh never signed a membership agreement with SEIU Local 2015 and does not agree with their political activity. Despite not signing any membership agreement or dues authorization, SEIU Local 2015 commenced deducting union dues from her monthly paycheck. The complaint states, 'On Sept. 5, 2024, Ms. Marsh sent a certified opt-out letter to SEIU 2015 even though she had no need to do so since she was never a union member to begin with.' As of April 28, 2025, SEIU 2015 continues to deduct dues from her monthly paycheck, according to the complaint. The Service Employees International Union did not respond to a request for comment. 'The objective of these class action suits is to bring a halt to the deceitful and stalling tactics by the unions and to prevent them from recurring in the future,' said Prasad. The cases also seek refunds of all inappropriately deducted union dues.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmaker asks for AG's opinion on potential Supt. Walters ethics violation
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A freshman Oklahoma lawmaker has brought up a new possible ethics complaint centered around State Superintendent Ryan Walters. In an interview with Non-Doc, Representative Ellen Pogemiller (D-Oklahoma City) said she not only asked Attorney General Gentner Drummond for his opinion, but also filed another complaint with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. Pogemiller said she believes that because Walters seemingly endorsed an alternate organization to what he called 'woke teachers' unions' through the use of his state letterhead, he probably violated an ethics rule. 'I knocked on several doors and most of the people told me that their main concern is holding Ryan Walters accountable,' said Pogemiller. In his press release, he promoted the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a program founded in March by the Freedom Foundation, a right-wing think tank. Walters already accepted a settlement agreement this year for an ethics violation where he pushed politically charged opinions while using his state profile on 'X.' Ethics Commission still asking for Ryan Walters' campaign donor information There he was told to take an ethics training course and to pay $5,000. Pogemiller believes that in this instance Walters issued written communications on official state letterhead and using state resources, advocating for TFA and positioning it as a preferable alternative to other labor organizations and professional organizations representing educators in Oklahoma. 'So it's (the letterhead) an official capacity as state superintendent. And so I feel like that went beyond the scope of what he was able to do and I wanted to get clarification,' said Pogemiller. Specifically, she listed two reasons the communications violated ethics rules: State officers are prohibited from using state resources to promote private interests. State officers may not use their position to provide preferential treatment to a specific private entity. State dollars have already been used to pay the Freedom Foundation. In July 2023, an Open Records Request found that Walters billed Oklahoma over $500 for airfare, mileage, and per diem for an appearance as the keynote speaker at the Freedom Foundation's Teachers for Freedom Summit in Denver, Colorado. Walters in the past, has been admittedly against teachers' unions and at one point even called them 'terrorist organizations.' The AG's office told News 4 on Friday that Pogemiller's request for an opinion is still being reviewed. News 4 reached out to an OSDE spokesperson via email on Friday and asked what specifically was woke about the teachers' unions in Oklahoma if he believes what Pogemiller is saying is against ethics rules, and for a statement. Another question we asked is if the Teachers Freedom Alliance can provide the same sort of things that other teachers' unions in our state can. News 4 also reached out to a person listed on a recent press release as being a part of the Teachers Freedom Alliance and asked if they provide liability insurance coverage to teachers or have the legal right in Oklahoma to negotiate working conditions. As of Friday evening, we have not heard back. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
