Judge Dismisses Challenge to Minnesota PCA Union

A federal judge on January 26 dismissed yet another lawsuit challenging the legality of a newly formed union of personal care aides (PCAs) in Minnesota.

The lawsuit was filed in late 2014 by the National Right to Work Foundation (NRWF), an anti-union organization based in Virginia.

Minnesota PCAs who provide consumer-directed home care voted for union representation in August 2014. Following a round of collective bargaining, union leaders recently reached a tentative contract with the state that will raise their wages, improve benefits, and provide additional funding for training.

But the NRWF has challenged the new union at every step. The Virginia-based organization filed a lawsuit in July 2014 — before PCAs even had a chance to vote on the union — arguing that unionization violated the First Amendment rights of workers who opposed the move.

A later NRWF lawsuit similarly contended that collective bargaining constituted a First Amendment violation as well.

Minnesota’s Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis dismissed both of those lawsuits, as well as the latest one, in which the NRWF argued that the tentative contract between the state and the union violated federal laws.

— by Matthew Ozga