Labor unions gave nearly $3 million to Gov. Tom Wolf’s 2014 election campaign, and it appears their investment is paying off.

Two of Wolf’s biggest contributors were the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Together the SEIU and AFSCME have 3.3 million dues-paying members — and they contributed a combined $554,000 toward Wolf’s campaign.

In one of his first acts as governor, Wolf issued an executive order establishing a process to organize Pennsylvania’s home health care workers who are paid by Medicare or other state programs. And while the governor has insisted that wasn’t his order’s intent, a secret attempt to organize home health care workers has been exposed in a pair of recent lawsuits.

Secret ballots were distributed recently by United Home Care Workers of Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative lobby group, claims the ballots actually were sent out by none other than SEIU and AFSCME.

Wolf has steadfastly denied the existence of any deal, arrangement or quid pro quo with organized labor, but “the fact that SEIU and AFSCME are organizing for their union right now directly contradicts these statements,” says Nathan Benefield, vice president of policy analysis for the Commonwealth Foundation.

Benefield points out that Wolf carefully worded his executive order, avoiding direct references to labor unions, organizing or negotiation. A key line from Wolf’s order reads: “An employee organization that has as one of its primary purposes the representation of direct care workers in their relations with the Commonwealth or other public entities may petition the Secretary to represent a particular unit of Direct Care Workers.”

Benefield calls the wording intentionally oblique. So do the Fairness Center and the Pennsylvania Homecare Association — the two organizations that have filed lawsuits with the Commonwealth Court to halt the executive order.

Wolf’s wording is as oblique as its intention is clear; if successful, a campaign to organize could yield an estimated $21 million a year in union dues — no small return on that $554,000 investment.

The plaintiffs in the two lawsuits raise a valid point that many home health care workers are relatives or friends of the patient, and in many cases they live with the patient as part of their compensation. State law qualifies live-in employees as domestic workers — who are expressly forbidden from union representation.

Home care workers vary greatly in their needs, skills and circumstances. They provide a vital service for their employers who prefer living at home to being institutionalized in a nursing home — and home care invariably is more affordable than nursing homes.

It’s difficult to see how a union could adequately serve the interests of such a widely varied group. This looks more like organized labor attempting to harvest low-hanging fruit.

Wolf’s executive order is nearly identical to a 2010 order issued by his predecessor, Gov. Ed Rendell. That order was rescinded amid a court challenge. The same fate should befall Wolf’s order.