California sues US over new union dues rules

California has sued the Trump administration over a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rule change that disallows states from deducting union dues and other benefit costs directly from federal funding for workers' paychecks.

In a press conference announcing the lawsuit Monday, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra denounced the rule, citing its effect on unions.

The policy affects home health care workers, who typically earn low wages and are paid through such federal services. Under the new rule, such workers would have more difficulty paying union dues and for benefits like their own health care.

"This administration is trying to enact an unlawful rule which would damage not just the workers who provide in-home supportive services, but those who are in need of those supportive services," Becerra said, calling the move a "solution in search of a problem."

California leads a coalition of five states in the lawsuit. Oregon, Washington, Connecticut, and Massachusetts joined it.

States' ability to route workers' dues and benefit payments from incoming Medicare and Medicaid funding for their paychecks was formally recognized in 2014 under the Obama administration, but many began the practice long before.

In the news conference, Becerra also called it a "back door way of making it harder for home care workers to get their benefits and organize as a benefit."

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, declined to comment.

This change was originally proposed in July 2018. Shortly afterward, Becerra wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services urging against it. In that letter, he called it an "attempt to intrude upon state sovereignty and deny Californians their collective bargaining rights."

He further derided the halved comment time for the rule. The window is typically 60 days, but the department allowed 30 for this one.

The final rule was issued on May 6.

The department's rationale for the change is a provision of the Medicare Act that prohibits assignment of rights to collect payment for Medicaid services to third parties, ostensibly to prevent fraud.

The lawsuit argues that the law does not apply to legal authorized deductions for workers' benefits.

April Verrett, president of SEIU Local 2015, which represents nearly 400,000 home health care workers in California, called the change a "hateful federal rule" that targets the union's members.

"We know what this CMS rule change really is," she said in the press conference, standing alongside Becerra. "It is a shameful political attack on home care providers who are largely women and people of color."

Unions have faced numerous challenges to their ability to collect funds in recent years. Chief among those is the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Janus v. AFCSME last year that mandatory fees to nonmembers are unconstitutional. In the year since that decision, major unions have seen their paying nonmember rolls precipitously drop.