Homecare Worker, Patient Challenge Wolf’s Order That Paves Way For Unionization

By Andrew Staub | PA Independent

Direct-care worker Don Lambrecht has looked after David Smith, a home-bound quadriplegic, for the last quarter century, more than enough time for the two to develop a friendship that goes beyond the patient-caregiver dynamic.

“Don’s really been my arms and legs for 25 years,” the 59-year-old Smith, who has muscular dystrophy, said in a statement issued Tuesday. Both of them fear what might happen if a union ended up part of that relationship.

Lambrecht and Smith, who lives in Phoenixville, are suing Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the state Department of Human Services, challenging an executive order that would allow a union to organize home care workers such as Lambrecht.

Represented by The Fairness Center, a conservative public-interest law firm, they’re asking the Commonwealth Court to issue an injunction and declare the order unlawful and invalid.

Unionization could compromise patients’ abilities to hire, fire and manage their direct-care workers, said their attorney, David Osborne. Before hiring Lambrecht, Smith had to fire a previous caretaker who tried to take advantage of him financially, according to The Fairness Center.

“Governor Wolf’s illegal executive order would radically alter Dave and Don’s working relationship, needlessly forcing Don to collectively bargain against Dave, his legal employer,” Osborne said in a statement. “In fact, many home care workers care for and are employed by their own elderly parents or disabled children. Perversely, Wolf’s order would force them to collectively bargain against their own family members.”

The Fairness Center also contends the executive order sets a lower bar for organization than labor laws do and would allow a union to deduct dues from workers paid through Medicaid or other state programs. Some might not be able to afford that or want the representation, The Fairness Center argued.

Jeffrey Sheridan, Wolf’s press secretary, said in an email the executive order “ensures that home care workers have a voice in shaping the future of the industry and seniors have choices about where to receive care.”

“The executive order does not grant collective bargaining rights to workers, does not force them to join a union, and does not make them state employees,” Sheridan wrote. “It simply creates a process where workers can share their ideas to improve the industry.”

Former Gov. Ed Rendell, also a Democrat, issued a similar executive order in 2010. He rescinded it after it was challenged in the courts.

The Pennsylvania Homecare Association and United Cerebral Palsy of Pennsylvania have also sued over Wolf’s executive order.