This was our story as last updated 8/7/2010:

The UAW and AFSCME, with the assistance of the Granholm administration, have figured out a way to skim $3.7 million a year from state payments to day care providers. The money is withheld by the Department of Human Services as union dues for a sham union called Child Care Providers Together Michigan (CCPTM). The members of the union are people who provide child care in their homes. They are actually business owners and not anyone’s employees, but DHS considers them “employees” because they receive payments from the state to supplement the amounts low-income parents are able to pay. Since there was no way they could be considered state employees, DHS arranged with Mott Community College in Flint to create the Michigan Home Based Child Care Council (MHBCCC) to act as the “employer”, another essential part of the collective bargaining process.

The day care providers chose to be represented by CCPTM in an election conducted by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission in October-November 2006. The vote was by mail. 6,396 ballots were returned, less than 16% of 40,500 eligible. 5,921 voted in favor of the union and 475 against. Some claim they did not get a ballot, never heard of the union, and were completely surprised when they were notified that that 1.15% of their state supplemental payments would be deducted for union dues. A few of them, with the help of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation (MCLF), sued to stop DHS from deducting union dues from their checks. On 12/30/09, the Michigan Court of Appeals dismissed the lawsuit without explanation. On 1/20/10, MCLF filed a motion for reconsideration, arguing that the Court is obligated to provide an explanation of the dismissal, and on 3/24/10, they appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court.

The MHBCCC does have a website, but it is pretty scanty. It lists a board of directors, but names no staff. Its address is 3186 Pine Tree Rd., Lansing, MI 48911. When I first looked the website several months ago, Child Care Providers Together Michigan (CCPTM) was at the top of the website's list of "Quick Links". Now it is 5th.

So far, CCPTM's only presence on the web is as a page on AFSCME's site. That page says CCPTM's own website is at www.providerstogether.org, but that URL seems to belong to something called Basics Fitness Equipment And Information. The AFSCME site has a link to a newsletter touting the accomplishments of the new union. The newsletter includes a photo of CCPTM Director Herbert Sanders (right), but says on page 2 that they are looking for a permanent director. It gives CCPTM's address as 600 West Lafayette Blvd., Suite 500, Detroit 48226.

On 1/20/10, this letter from Herbert Sanders appeared in the Lansing State Journal:

The article on an important court case ("Day-care providers lose appeals case," Jan. 7) missed the real issue.

By throwing out the lawsuit brought by a tiny group of anti-small business, anti-government ideologues bent on destroying the partnership of 40,000 Michigan child care providers, the Court of Appeals supported families and children, and the quality, affordable child care that businesses depend on to have reliable workers. That's great news for Michigan's children, working families, child care providers and businesses.  Providers overwhelmingly, democratically and legally chose to join together as Child Care Providers Together Michigan to help our children grow, learn and prosper. Together, they work to encourage the quality child care options working parents and the businesses which employ them depend on.

Through CCPTM, providers have improved quality and availability of child care, while extending training and fair compensation to more providers.

Providers working together means children and their families get the quality care they need at effective costs; businesses have the reliable work force to contribute to the economy; and providers have a voice.

On 2/5/10, the Mackinac Center reported on its website that although the state Legislature voted to defund the MHBCCC in the current budget, MHBCCC is still operating, and DHS refuses to tell the Legislature where the money is coming from.

On 2/24/10, Senate Bill 1173 was introduced. It is described as follows:

Labor; public service employment; definition of public employee; clarify regarding collection of union dues from child care or health care giver subsidies.

This text is included in the bill:

An election shall not be directed for, and the commission or a public employer shall not recognize, a bargaining unit of a public employer consisting of individuals who are not public employees. A bargaining unit that is formed or recognized in violation of this subsection is invalid and void.

Lots more information on this case is on the Mackinac Center's website:

• Case summary
• Links to related documents, news stories, videos, etc.

The latest revelation is a video posted on the Mackinac Center website 8/5/2010. In the video, Governor Granholm, speaking at a 2008 AFSCME convention, says:

In Michigan, because of the partnership between AFSCME and the governor's office, this means that 45,000 new AFSCME members, quality child care providers, will be on the ground providing care to children. That is great for our state.

In case you are unfamiliar with the Mackinac Center, it is a conservative think tank headquartered in Midland.