THE ROBING ROOM

One of the worst judges ever. Judge Nancy G. Edmunds of the U.S. District Court of Eastern Michigan handed down the order after a brief hearing in Detroit. The gist of Edmunds' ruling was that because Michigan's Employment Relations Commission recognized the forced unionization of tens of thousands of so-called home health care workers in 2005, the state is on the hook for fulfilling the contract obligations with the union. In making her decision, Edmunds chose to ignore several elements. Among these is the established fact that the alleged employer in the case, the Michigan Quality Community Care Council (MQC3) no longer claims to be the employer and the fact that (since being defunded by the legislature) the MQC3 has had only a single employee who works out of her house in Okemos for three hours or less a month so she can continue to collect unemployment benefits. Additionally, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the union has given the MQC3 at least $12,000 to keep it afloat. Whether those who were unionized were ever eligible to even be considered as public employees in the first place also is an unanswered question.