Investment, worker voice critical to addressing care crisis

September 23, 2021 by

Jacquelyn Kelly is a home care worker from Oakdale.

By Jacquelyn Kelly, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota

What we decide to do today will create the foundation on which our families will build their tomorrows. This is true for many parts of life, but it is especially true in the care field. As a home care worker and the mother of a child who needs care support, this issue is personal for me. As a leader in my union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, I’ve come to learn that my fight is more common than I ever could have imagined.

For most of our history, home care workers (also sometimes known as Personal Care Attendants or PCAs) have been paid the minimum wage (or less) with little or no benefits. In Minnesota that was the case before we formed our union, winning what is still the largest union election in Minnesota history and bringing together over 25,000 caregivers, mostly women and people of color.

From when before we had our union until now, we’ve seen wages almost double (we will get to $15.25 in our current contract) and now have paid sick time, paid holidays, training and much more. But we still have so much work to do.

Like most parents of teens who are quickly coming of age, I often think about my child’s future and transition into independence. As a home care worker for my 16-year-old son, I spend every day working to support his independence, but also worry about the systems we have in place to support him if I am not able to support him.

Even before COVID there was a “care crisis” that meant there were close to 10,000 open positions because people didn’t want to do this physically and emotionally challenging work for the meager pay and benefits. In many cases, like mine, a family member provides the care, but thousands of people hire someone they don’t know to provide this intimate level of care. If this was you or your loved one, you’d want workers who feel respected and like their work had value, wouldn’t you?

I know my family will likely need home care workers for that independence to be possible, and I worry a lot about how that is going to be possible if we don’t have the care workers we need. The care industry is one of the fastest growing jobs in the country. I worry that if I can’t offer a living wage, benefits and a viable long term career path, caregivers will choose to move into other employment situations that provide more stability and less risk.

That’s why it is critical that congress pass President Biden’s Better Care, Better Jobs act, which would see a historic $400 billion investment in care work. This would create over 1 million jobs and help workers in non-union states with tools to organize into a union.

An investment in home care is not only supporting care workers, but also our disabled and elderly friends and neighbors who simply want to be able to live safely at home. An investment in making sure all people have the right to choose the life they want for themselves. We need to pivot from treating care as a problem for individuals and toward understanding that it is a shared experience across our society.

We need to reckon with the fact that through most of our history our country has seen care work done by women, and especially women of color, as not real and valuable work. Care workers have been left out and left behind for too long. After COVID, I hope we all know better now. Our communities, our families, our economy, we are all depending on the women doing this work to keep all of our lives going, and what could be more valuable than that?

– Jacquelyn Kelly is a home care worker from Oakdale and member of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. She wrote this “Labor Voices” column for The Union Advocate’s October 2021 edition.

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Walz signs historic infrastructure bill from Ironworkers’ training floor

October 21, 2020 by

Gov. Walz signs a $1.88 package of infrastructure investments into law.

In a ceremony held on the floor of Ironworkers Local 512’s apprenticeship training center today, Gov. Tim Walz signed into law a $1.88 billion package of infrastructure investments that will create thousands of jobs for union tradespeople across Minnesota.

The bill also keeps open the Willow River and Togo correctional facilities, a top priority of the state’s largest public service union, AFSCME Council 5. And it provides a long-sought emergency rate increase for the state’s home care workers, members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota.

The measure passed both chambers of the Legislature during a special session last week, drawing bipartisan support.

The largest bonding bill in state history will fund local projects in both the metro and greater Minnesota, including transportation infrastructure, affordable housing and water-treatment and higher-education facilities.

Walz likened the projects to the property improvements homeowners might make, but on a much larger scale. “It’s the most important investment you make,” he said. “You don’t let it run down.”

The governor also thanked the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council and its member unions for convincing enough legislators to support such a robust bonding package.

“They did the hard work of getting this thing across the finish line,” Walz said. “And now they’ll do the actual work” of building and repairing the state’s buildings, roads, bridges, water systems and more.

Local 512 apprentice Travis Strugis gives Gov. Tim Walz a demonstration on the union’s training floor.
Walz and Local 512 Apprenticeship Coordinator Josh Kalina celebrate the largest bonding bill in state history.
“Today, when Gov. Walz signs this bill, we really, truly are one Minnesota,” Ironworkers Local 512 Business Manager Barry Davies says.

Bonding is traditionally a legislative priority in even-numbered years, and lawmakers were progressing steadily toward a bill during the regular session – until the COVID-19 pandemic derailed their progress.

Since the regular session adjourned in May, Walz has called lawmakers into special session each month. But until last week members of the House Republican caucus withheld their support for the jobs-creating infrastructure bill, hoping to pressure Walz into giving up his emergency powers during the pandemic.

Barry Davies, Local 512’s business manager, noted that tradespeople would still be waiting for an infrastructure investment had 25 House Republicans not broke with their caucus’ leadership to support the bill last week.

“Today, when Gov. Walz signs this bill, we really, truly are one Minnesota,” Davies said.

Bonding bills sustain jobs in the construction industry, added Operating Engineers Local 49 Business Manager Jason George.

“We needed this bill,” George said. “The global pandemic has created economic uncertainty for next year, and this bill eliminates a lot of that uncertainty for our work in Minnesota.”

“This bonding investment is necessary for our communities, workers and our economy,” said Jessica Looman, executive director of the Minnesota Building Trades Council. “Construction workers across the state are breathing a little easier today, knowing that there will be jobs coming so they can keep working to provide for themselves and their families.”

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The emergency rate increase for home care, meanwhile, came after home care clients and workers, members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, staged rallies in the streets outside the Capitol in the days leading up to the special session.

The rate increase rewards workers on the front lines of the pandemic response, providing care that helps tens of thousands of Minnesota seniors and people with disabilities live safely in their homes.

The home health industry suffers from a critical shortage of workers, and SEIU members and their clients have been campaigning for years to improve pay and benefits to make the job more attractive.

Robin Pikala, a home care worker and SEIU member from Fridley, called the bipartisan vote “an important step,” toward the respect workers and clients deserve.

“But this temporary support during the peacetime emergency is just a stopgap,” Pikala added. “We have so much work left to do.”

The special session wrapped up Oct. 15, less than a month before Election Day. Every seat in the Legislature is up for election in 2020.

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To assess care crisis, Walz ‘walks a day’ in PCA’s shoes

November 22, 2019 by

Gov. Tim Walz applies deodorant to St. Paul resident Jay Spika, who has multiple sclerosis.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz walked in a home health care worker’s shoes today in St. Paul.

The governor helped 41-year-old Jay Spika, who has primary progressive multiple sclerosis, bathe, dress and depart his St. Paul home. Walz worked alongside one of Spika’s home health aides, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota member Deb Howze.

The “walk-a-day” event offered Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who participated in a similar event in Minneapolis, a unique perspective on the state’s home health industry.

Federal and state subsidies allow thousands of Minnesota seniors and people with disabilities to stay in their homes, saving taxpayers the cost of providing institutional care.

But workers and clients warn of a labor shortage in their field, caused by low wages and lack of benefits. As the state’s population ages, they fear the crisis will only worsen.

As they worked together to get Spika’s socks and shoes on, Howze told Walz it’s difficult to retain good workers in such a demanding job at $13.25 per hour, the minimum wage in SEIU’s most recent union contract with the state.

“This job is exhausting,” she said. “We have so much turnover. I feel the pay is not enough. You should be able to get a PCA job and be able to live on it without working two extra jobs.”

Earlier this year, Walz and other lawmakers approved raising the minimum wage by 10.4% as part of a two-year union contract covering 25,000 home care workers statewide.

That’s “a starting point,” the governor acknowledged, to addressing the industry’s labor shortage. Walz noted the state has a backlog of thousands of qualified individuals and families who want a home care attendant but can’t get one.

“That means spouses leaving their work, giving up their careers to make sure the care is there,” he said.

Later in the event, Walz turned to Spika and asked what elected officials can do better from his standpoint.

“I think we need to invest in the PCA program,” he said. “It’s not a matter of if you’re going to need these services; it’s a matter of when… And you need a professional.”

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Home care workers push Walz to address ‘crisis of care’ with higher wages

January 25, 2019 by

Home care workers and their clients plan to rally at the Capitol Thursday, Jan. 31, at 11 a.m.

Home care workers in Minnesota are fighting for a $15 wage floor in ongoing contract negotiations with the state, and fighting alongside them are the clients and families they serve.

The connection is obvious to Lauren Thompson, a Minnesotan with cerebral palsy, who receives in-home care thanks to state and federal subsidies.

“Think about how you’d want to be cared for and the people you want taking care of you,” Thompson said. “A minimum wage of at least $15 an hour would start to create a stronger workforce. It would mean that good PCAs would be able to keep working.”

Thompson is part of a unique team bargaining on behalf of nearly 30,000 home care workers statewide. It not only includes members of the workers’ union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, but also the seniors, people with disabilities and families who rely on personal care to remain in their homes.

The united front reflects growing concern over a shortage of home care workers – there are currently 8,000 unfilled positions statewide, according to the union – at a time when the state’s population is aging.

The nonprofit research initiative Minnesota Compass projects the number of Minnesotans 65 and older will exceed those ages 5 to 17 for the first time ever “around 2020,” and nearly a third of people 65 and older have a disability.

The confluence of workforce and demographic trends amounts to a crisis, home care workers and clients warn. And addressing it starts with raising wages in the industry.

That’s the message they will deliver to lawmakers during a rally planned next Thursday, Jan. 31, at 11 a.m. in the Capitol. [Click here to RSVP on Facebook.]

“We have a huge shortage of care workers in south central Minnesota where I live,” said Dalene Annen, a home care worker from Winnebago. “If we can win at least a $15 minimum wage in our new contract, it will give good people an incentive to be home care workers instead of choosing to work at the grocery store or fast food because they pay more.”

Annen and other workers hope one lawmaker, in particular, is paying attention next Thursday.

On the campaign trail, Gov. Tim Walz backed a $15 minimum wage for all workers. His administration’s contract negotiations with home care workers offer an early opportunity to back up talk with action.

In addition, home care workers say getting to $15 now would ensure their pay remains in step with rising minimum-wage rates in Minneapolis and St. Paul, where thousands of them work.

The current wage floor for home care workers in Minnesota is $12, and it’s risen steadily since workers formed a union with SEIU in 2014. The union also has won paid time off, holiday pay and increased training opportunities since organizing.

Yet in spite of those gains, too many Minnesotans still are not getting the care they need to stay in their homes. Patsy Gibson, a home care worker from Bloomington, hopes this is the year things change. 

“We are losing valuable people in such an important profession,” Gibson said. “I really hope our government is aware of what is happening… When we say we can only afford to pay poverty wages it means people’s lives are at stake. We need our governor and elected officials to help us get to a decent living wage.”

SEIU anticipates reaching a tentative agreement with the state’s Department of Management and Budget on a new two-year contract in the coming weeks, so that it can be included in Walz’s first two-year budget proposal, expected early next month.

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Appeals court sides with home care workers’ union – again

January 18, 2018 by

Minnesota PCAs who worked Monday – on MLK Day – received holiday pay for the first time, thanks to a new provision in their union contract with the state.

A day later, home care workers received more good news. The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled against a group seeking to roll back holiday pay and other gains workers and their clients have made through collective bargaining by decertifying their union.

Corey Van Denburgh, a home care worker from Anoka, said he was relieved the court decision would preserve advances made since workers organized in 2014.

“We’ve won sick pay for the first time, raised the wage floor by $3 per hour, won free access to trainings, won over $150,000 in back-pay awards for workers who were underpaid, built an online matching registry to help home clients find the workers they need and established time-and-a-half pay for holidays, among other gains,” Van Denburgh said. “Through these accomplishments, we are finally beginning to address the severe care crisis in our state, which has only been getting worse for years because of the low pay and lack of benefits provided for this important work.”

It was the latest legal setback for MNPCA, an anti-union group that petitioned the state Bureau of Mediation Services in December 2016 for a decertification election. But MNPCA fell far short of collecting signatures from 30 percent of home care workers represented by the union – the threshold necessary to trigger a vote, according to state law.

When the BMS rejected its decertification petition, MNPCA sued. In Tuesday’s ruling, a panel of three Appeals Court judges upheld the BMS’s decision.

Still, it’s unlikely to be the last legal Hail Mary for the well-funded MNPCA, which has ties to right-wing legal funds and shadowy think tanks like the Center of the American Experiment. MNPCA has been pestering home care workers’ union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, with lawsuits since before workers voted to organize.

Van Denburgh, a vice president of his union, called MNPCA’s efforts a “tragic misuse of time and energy.”

“As home care workers and people who receive home care services, we resolved to never let these extremist attacks stop us from making progress for the people of Minnesota, nearly every one of which will need home care services at some point in our lives,” he said.

“Whether Democrat or Republican, we all have been or will be impacted by the shortage of caregivers because of low pay and lack of benefits, so I hope we can put these divisive court cases and anti-union attack campaigns behind us. Let’s come together to make sure every Minnesotan can get safe, quality care and stay in their home with their loved ones.”

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Home care workers ratify new contract, urge lawmakers to get serious about looming care crisis

June 20, 2017 by

Home care workers and clients kicked off the campaign for a new contract covering more than 20,000 workers statewide in September 2016.

Union members who provide in-home health services to clients across Minnesota have ratified a new contract with the state that will lift wages, provide holiday pay, boost paid-time off and expand training opportunities for an estimated 27,000 home care workers statewide.

The new contract, home care workers’ second since voting to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota three years ago, will take effect July 1. The union announced results of a week-long ratification vote this morning.

Home care workers said the new contract builds on their union’s effort to raise wages and working conditions in the home care industry – improvements they say are necessary to meet the needs of Minnesota’s seniors and people with disabilities.

But it doesn’t go far enough, said Yasmine Soud-Reynolds, a home care worker from White Bear Lake.

“On one hand I feel like the contract is good,” Soud-Reynolds said. “We do get a little bump in pay, also time and a half for holidays. On the other hand, I feel like it needs to be improved.”

The contract ratified this month looks different from the tentative agreement reached by SEIU members and the state earlier this year. That’s because elected officials cut funding for the contract in half during last-ditch budget negotiations at the Capitol last month, forcing workers and the state to renegotiate the pact.

The decrease in funding will slow efforts to address the care crisis facing vulnerable Minnesotans, home care workers warned, and they pinned much of the blame on anti-union attorney Doug Seaton and the Center of the American Experiment, which is funding an effort to decertify their union.

In legislative testimony, these groups urged legislators to vote down raises and new benefits for home care workers, who vowed to continue fighting to restore funding in the next legislative session.

Soud-Reynolds, who cares for a client recovering from a massive brain hemorrhage, said she earns less than the $15 per hour her stepsister makes at a local gas station, and called the Legislature’s move to defund her union’s contract “very frustrating.”

“I feel like legislators won’t really understand what home care workers are going through or asking for until they either have to work in the field themselves or, God forbid, one of their family members needs a home care worker,” Soud-Reynolds said. “What I do is hard, and I definitely don’t feel like it’s valued.”

The new contract creates a $12 wage floor, with a new 5 percent increase for workers like Soud-Reynolds who provide care for the highest-need clients.

The state also agreed to create an online matching registry to help clients find quality care workers. Several clients who receive in-home health services participated in SEIU Healthcare Minnesota’s home care contract campaign.

Jim Carlisle, who relies on care for himself and his wife to be able to stay in their home, said the crisis facing the home care industry is “well beyond the point where any half-measures will suffice.”

“This is, without exaggeration, a life or death situation for someone like me who relies on quality caregivers to get out of bed and do basic tasks like eating and leaving my house,” Carlisle added. “I’m proud we won the gains we did, but we are still a long way from where we need to be. What we’ve proven over the last few months is that we won’t let any attacks or setbacks stop us. We will fight to ensure every person who needs care has access to quality caregivers.”

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Home care union, state reach tentative agreement on new contract

January 5, 2017 by
Home care workers and clients kicked off the campaign for a new contract covering more than 20,000 workers statewide in September.

Home care workers and clients kicked off the campaign for a new contract covering more than 20,000 workers statewide in September.

After negotiations that took nearly four months to conclude, home care workers are poised to vote on a tentative agreement for a new union contract with the State of Minnesota that would raise their wage floor from $11 to $13.

The home care workers’ union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, announced the tentative agreement in a press release today, calling it a critical step toward addressing a growing workforce crisis in the state’s home health care industry.

“I am passionate about my job and proud of the good work home care workers do keeping Minnesotans safe and in their homes,” bargaining team member Dawn Burnfin, a home care worker from Chisholm, said. “The gains in the tentative agreement would begin to make home care workers feel like our time, skills and work are just as important as other jobs.”

According to SEIU, provisions of the proposed two-year contract include:

  • A $2-per-hour increase in the wage floor, to $13 per hour hour, and additional increases for workers providing support to clients with the highest, most complex care needs.
  • Investing over $1 million in training for home care workers, and new stipends for workers who access the training sessions.
  • Holiday pay – a first for Minnesota home care workers, many of whom provide essential care on holidays, allowing their clients to celebrate with family.
  • Increased paid time off, a benefit won in SEIU’s first contract with the state two years ago.
  • An online matching registry to help home care clients find workers and vice versa.

The contract negotiations impact more than 20,000 workers who provide state-subsidized, in-home care to disabled and elderly Minnesotans. The workers voted to form a union in August 2014.

If ratified by union members, the tentative agreement would advance to the Legislature for approval before reaching Gov. Mark Dayton’s desk.

As they did in negotiations two years ago, SEIU members invited several home care clients to join the union’s bargaining team.

Jim Carlisle, a disability rights advocate and home care client who served on the bargaining team, said the tentative agreement provides an opportunity for state lawmakers to address increased demand for workers who provide in-home health care as Minnesota’s population continues to age. The state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development projects nearly 38,000 new openings for home-health and personal-care aides over the next 10 years – jobs likely to remain open unless wages and working conditions in the industry improve.

“My wife and I have seen the best of home care workers, some of whom became like family to us,” Carlisle said. “But we’ve also experienced the trauma that comes when there are not real investments in care work.

“Everyone who wants and needs it should have access to good, safe care in their homes, and by ratifying this contract the Minnesota Legislature will be taking a strong step towards making that a reality. Having people with disabilities and seniors remain in our homes doesn’t just make our lives better; it also saves taxpayers millions of dollars, compared to having us in nursing homes or other institutional settings.”

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In contract talks, home care workers hope to address crisis facing state, industry

September 28, 2016 by
Home care workers and clients kick off the campaign for a new contract covering more than 20,000 workers statewide.

Home care workers and clients kick off the campaign for a new contract covering more than 20,000 workers statewide.

Minnesota’s home care workers are set to begin negotiating a new union contract Friday. At a Capitol press conference today, workers and their clients framed the talks as an opportunity for the state to begin addressing the workforce crisis in their industry.

As Minnesota’s population continues to age, the demand for workers who provide in-home health care is expected to increase sharply. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development projects nearly 38,000 new openings for home-health and personal-care aides over the next 10 years.

Home care clients and advocates worry those jobs will remain vacant unless working conditions in the industry improve – a process that starts with raising wages and respecting the work, home care client Nikki Villiavicencio said.

The Maplewood resident said a “huge shortage” of home care workers already exists in the state. “It’s a crisis that Minnesota leaders have not valued home care workers and the services they provide enough,” she said.

Represented in negotiations with the state by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, home care workers said they plan to seek a $15 minimum wage in their next union contract, as well as expanded benefits and training opportunities specific to the type of care they provide.

Additionally, workers said they want the state to commit to long-range strategies for growing the industry’s worker pool and, along the same lines, improving job satisfaction among home care workers.

"I can be a better father, a better husband a better member of society with her," Jonathan Spika of St. Paul, left permanently disabled by MS, said of his home health care worker.

“I can be a better father, a better husband a better member of society with her,” Jonathan Spika of St. Paul, left permanently disabled by MS, said of his home health care worker.

“Most people don’t stay in these positions for very long because … this is one of the lowest-paying jobs in Minnesota,” home care worker Jasmine Laducer-Kitto said.

For Laducer-Kitto, the rewards of home care work go beyond the paycheck. But if state lawmakers value giving people the option of receiving care in their homes, she said, they need to invest in the workers who make it possible.

“We have to look at the this as an important job,” Laducer-Kitto said.

Home care workers’ first contract with the state, bargained after their historic organizing drive, is set to expire in July 2017. It raised the industry’s wage floor to $11 per hour and gave home care workers paid-time-off benefits for the first time.

Still, Villiavicencio said, “the progress we’ve made hasn’t been enough to lift us out of the crisis we’re in now.”

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota’s contract covers more than 20,000 home care workers across the state. Negotiators said they hope to have a tentative agreement before the 2017 legislative session begins so that lawmakers can vote to approve it for inclusion in the 2017-18 fiscal year budget.

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