Michigan elections bureau probes SEIU's role in ballot initiative on unionizing

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Washington Examiner:

Michigan Bureau of Elections officials last week launched an investigation into the Service Employees International Union's financing of a statewide ballot initiative in 2012.

 

The Detroit News reported Sept. 18 that the state, acting on a complaint from the conservative Michigan Freedom Fund, is looking into whether SEIU used two nonprofits as front groups to launder campaign money to promote the initiative. The union sought to represent those workers.

 

The state's November ballot last year included Proposal 4, which would have allowed home health care workers to unionize. It was rejected by voters in a lopsided 57-43 percent margin.

 

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Reporter Chad Livengood wrote: "The complaint focuses on a group called Citizens for Affordable Quality Home Care and an East Lansing company called Home Care First Inc. Citizens for Affordable Quality Home Care sponsored the ballot proposal. In campaign finance reports, the group claimed almost all of its donations came from Home Care First."