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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St. Paul home care worker Maggie Doran: Why I’m voting ‘yes’

July 24, 2014 by

mug-voices0814On July 8, home care workers from across the state came together to file a union petition that triggered what will be the largest union election in the history of our state. Ballots will go out to more than 26,000 home care workers on August 1, and we will have our election results before Labor Day.

We’ve fought for years to get to this point, and there are thousands and thousands of workers from every corner of our state who are part of our movement. Each has a story about why they are joining our campaign to form our union and finally make our work “Invisible No More.”

My story is that I’m a home care worker for a sweet girl who suffers from Rett Syndrome. It is a joy to care for this beautiful child, but it is also challenging work. On a daily basis, she requires tube feeding, dressing, bathing, administration of meds and lots of mobility issues including a split-level entrance at her house.

Despite the important work being done by home care workers like me, we face a reality of low pay, no benefits and lack of training and support. When we win our Union, we will be continuing our fight not only for higher wages and benefits, but things like body-braces for caregivers to help ensure safe and quality care for those we serve. Things like this should not be considered luxuries for the Minnesotans who need care. Our campaign is fighting for a better quality of life for workers and the people we serve. Families in Minnesota deserve better than our current situation.

I provide care for my client through the Consumer Directed Community Supports program. Like most home care workers, I do not get paid mileage and many important parts of my job end up having to be done “off the clock.” Home care workers care immensely for the people we serve, and too often our dedication means we are working many hours longer than we are paid for and sacrificing our health to take care of someone else. With the current situation, turnover is incredibly high and the people who receive services end up suffering. As we face a growing number of Minnesotans needing care, this crisis will only get worse. That is why we need our union.

I will be voting “yes” for a Union to move our industry forward, both for workers and the people we serve. By the end of August, we will have our results and will have won the largest union election in state history. This will be a historic moment, but it will only be the beginning.

When we win our union, we will have achieved a groundbreaking step toward our goals of making our work “Invisible No More.”

– Maggie Doran is a home care worker who lives in St. Paul. She plans to vote “yes” this month to form a union of home care workers statewide, represented by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota.

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Home care workers ‘invisible no more’ after filing for historic union election

July 8, 2014 by
Nikki Villavicencio (L) and home care worker Sumer Spika lead a celebration outside the Bureau of Mediation Services after workers filed for a historic statewide election.

Nikki Villavicencio (L) and home care worker Sumer Spika lead a celebration outside the Bureau of Mediation Services after workers filed for a historic statewide election.

When home care workers in Minnesota launched their campaign to form a statewide union less than two years ago, they set out to raise wages, improve working conditions and bring legitimacy and respect to a career path seen as critical to meeting the needs of an aging population.

They may not have set out to make history, but home care workers did just that today, formally petitioning the state to conduct what would be the largest union election in Minnesota history.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, the union seeking to represent an estimated 26,000 workers in state-funded home care programs, presented the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services this morning with more than 9,000 cards signed by home care workers requesting representation, exceeding the 30 percent threshold needed to trigger an election.

Afterward, workers gathered outside the BMS’s St. Paul offices, where union supporters like Jaycee Berens celebrated the grassroots organizing behind today’s historic filing – and looked forward to voting “yes” in the near future.

“I knocked on hundreds of doors each day,” Berens said of her involvement in the organizing effort. “I found behind those doors were caring, hard-working, dedicated people who love what they do.

“We are eager as home care workers to take care of clients that live in their homes, but we also need to be able to better provide for ourselves and our families.”

Many workers at the celebration stood alongside the clients who rely on their care. Nikki Villavicencio of Maplewood said she expects the quality and reliability of her care to improve when workers are at the table, participating in decisions that affect the home health care field.

Villavicencio said she’s long wondered, “Why is this field so undervalued? Why are the workers who support my family so invisible?”

“When workers receive better wages, benefits and training, it makes the whole community stronger,” she added.

Pat Winick said she wouldn’t have been able to remain in her South Minneapolis home after suffering multiple brain injuries if it weren’t for the care she receives from state-subsidized home health workers.

Pat Winick said she wouldn’t have been able to remain in her South Minneapolis home after suffering multiple brain injuries if it weren’t for the care she receives from state-subsidized home health workers.

Political, legal hurdles

Today’s filing marked another milestone on home care workers’ uniquely challenging path to collective bargaining – a path that became even more complicated with the Supreme Court’s Harris v. Quinn ruling last month.

When their organizing drive began two years ago, state law prohibited workers who provide self-directed care – workers hired directly by their clients but paid with state funds – from forming a union, treating them more like independent contractors.

Backed by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, workers lobbied to change the law last year, and in May 2013 Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill passed by DFL majorities in the Legislature extending collective bargaining rights to both home care workers and child care providers.

Home care workers’ campaign to gain the signatures needed to file for an election kicked into high gear over the winter. Workers, organizers and supporters from the labor community fanned out across the state to collect more than 9,000 signed cards.

But the SEIU waited to file those cards until after the Supreme Court handed down its ruling on Harris v. Quinn, a case that tested the authority of another state, Illinois, to extend collective bargaining rights to workers in state-subsidized home care programs.

The court’s decision was bad news for unions. It exempted home care workers in Illinois from having to pay so-called “fair-share fees,” but kept in place requirements that unions represent all workers in a collective-bargaining unit – even those who choose not to pay dues.

Not giving up

Outside the BMS, however, home care workers like Sumer Spika pledged to move forward with the organizing election, even if their union would not be able to collect fair-share revenue. “This ruling will not stop the home care workers in Minnesota who are joining together,” the St. Paul resident said.

After scrutinizing the authorization cards, the BMS will conduct an election by mail, likely later this summer. If more than half of workers who participate in the election vote “yes,” SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will be authorized as the workers’ exclusive representative.

Nicole Taras, a recipient of in-home care who has muscular dystrophy, traveled to the BMS with her partner and part-time care provider, Tyler Frank.

Nicole Taras, a recipient of in-home care who has muscular dystrophy, traveled to the BMS with her partner and part-time care provider, Tyler Frank.

That’s the celebration Nicole Taras, a recipient of in-home care who has muscular dystrophy, said she looks forward to most. Taras, who traveled to the BMS with her partner, Tyler Frank, said low wages and high turnover rates make it difficult to find caregivers she can rely on.

“Right now this is a throw-away job,” Taras said. “Because turnover is so high, I hardly ever get a fully trained person before they leave for a Walmart job or something better, and then Tyler has to do it.”

With a union, Frank said, comes better pay, more training opportunities and, hopefully, greater stability for home care clients like Taras, which would free him to pursue his own career aspirations.

“I’ll no longer have to choose between my goals and hers,” Frank said.

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Health care local celebrates 80th anniversary, welcomes PCAs into union

September 27, 2013 by
Jamie Gulley, president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, and home-care provider Karen Urman answer questions during a press conference on the union's efforts to organize PCA's.

Jamie Gulley, president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, and home-care provider Karen Urman answer questions during a press conference on the union’s efforts to organize providers statewide.

The nation’s oldest union of health care workers marked its 80th anniversary Sept. 20 by welcoming a new group of members, home care workers, into the local.

For the first time ever, roll call to open SEIU Healthcare Minnesota’s convention included a unit of personal care attendants who are hired by their clients and paid by the state, or “consumer-directed home care” workers.

Nicole Villavicencio and Ziggy Norberg talk about why they support their home health care providers’ efforts to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. “If my PCA has a better quality of life, I will have a better quality of life,” Villavicencio said.

Nicole Villavicencio and Ziggy Norberg talk about why they support their home health care providers’ efforts to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. “If my PCA has a better quality of life, I will have a better quality of life,” Villavicencio said.

These workers had been barred from collective bargaining by state law, but Gov. Mark Dayton and DFL majorities in the Minnesota Legislature lifted those restrictions last spring, setting the stage for a massive organizing drive that could nearly double the 15,000-member union’s rolls.

“Home care workers provide care for our seniors and people with disabilities,” local President Jamie Gulley said. “Yet today they have the same struggles the hospital workers who founded our unions faced 80 years ago – low pay, lack of benefits and lack of respect. We look forward to their inclusion in our great tradition of improving people’s lives.”

Gulley said the organizing effort is likely to kick into high gear later this fall.

At a press conference during the convention, home care workers expressed optimism that forming a union would improve their wages, benefits and training opportunities – changes that would improve not only their own standard of living, but their clients’ as well.

“The PCA system is a blessing when it works,” Shaquonica Johnson said. “But in my years as a PCA, I see it’s not working because of turnover and a lack of training opportunities. Our clients should never wonder, ‘Is my PCA trained, and will he come back tomorrow?’”

Karen Urman, a PCA for her son, called her profession a workforce in crisis, pointing to studies that show Minnesota’s changing demographics will result in a care gap of more than 53,000 workers needed to provide home care services over the next decade.

“We need to grow the field,” Urman said. “To attract workers to do this work, we need to provide livable wages and benefits.”

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Home care workers rally as lawmakers consider their union rights

March 22, 2013 by
Streamers drop as Zev Nicholson speaks at a rally in the Capitol rotunda. Each cutout represents a home-care worker who has signed up to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota.

Streamers drop as Zev Nicholson speaks at a rally in the Capitol rotunda. Each cutout represents a home-care worker who has signed up to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota.

Working to change a state law denying them the right to form a union, home health care workers “made it rain” at the Capitol yesterday, streaming more than 1,000 purple cutouts – each representing a home-care worker who has signed up for the union – from the second level onto the rotunda floor.

It was a powerful backdrop for a rally that drew home-care providers and their clients. Together, they called on lawmakers to pass legislation granting workers who provide so-called “self-directed” care the right to decide for themselves if they want to form a union.

“If my workers have a better quality of life, then I have a better quality of life,” Nikki Villavicencio-Tollison, a recipient of home care programs, told the crowd.

Clara Nakumbe, who cares for her adult son with multiple sclerosis, said having a union help legitimize the home health care profession and ensure workers are treated with the respect they deserve.

“There will probably come a point where I will no longer be able to care for my son anymore,” Nakumbe said. “That’s why I’m here today, to advocate for the union so we can attract people to this career, … quality people we can trust.”

Currently, state law grants organizing rights to workers employed by home health care agencies, but not to workers providing so-called “self-directed” care, who are considered more like independent contractors.

Klara Nakumbe talks about why she signed up to join

Klara Nakumbe believes forming a union of home-care workers will help attract “people we can trust” to the profession.

A bipartisan bill making its way through the Legislature would eliminate that distinction – and open the door for an estimated 12,000 home-care workers to choose whether or not to form a union.

But many home-care workers aren’t waiting for the law to change. Many already have signed up to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota – enough to make it rain with cutouts in the Capitol rotunda.

A union of more than 15,000 workers statewide, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota has been the driving force behind the legislative push to enable home-care workers to organize. Members like Nakumbe and Zev Nicholson, a home care worker from Minneapolis, have been prominent at committee hearings, delivering testimony in support of the bill.

Nicholson said so many home-care workers are signing up to join the union because they understand the power of speaking with one voice.

“Without a union we are going to be invisible,” he said. “But that’s why we’re here today. We’re invisible no more.”

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Unions seek organizing rights for Minnesota’s home health care workers

December 13, 2012 by
Ziggy Norberg talks about the importance of quality home care, as his mother and personal care attendant, Karen Urman, looks on.

Ziggy Norberg talks about the importance of quality home care, as his mother and personal care attendant, Karen Urman, looks on.

Karen Urman of Mounds View works as a personal care attendant for her adult son, Ziggy Norberg, who has used a wheelchair since he was 3 years old. The work is a full-time job, one Urman gave up her career as a tax preparer and office supervisor to pursue.

For Urman it is rewarding work, even if it doesn’t always draw the attention – or respect – it deserves. “Being a PCA is rarely considered a real job, especially when you’re a PCA for a family member,” she said.

State legislators can count on hearing from home health care workers like Urman during the 2013 legislative session, as they push for changes to a state law that prohibits them from organizing a union – a step many believe is critical to making their voices are heard as the state plots its course for meeting the needs of a rapidly aging population.

The number of Minnesota adults over 65 is expected to nearly double by 2030, according to the Wilder Foundation.

What’s more, workers believe a union would help legitimize the home health care profession and ensure workers are treated with the respect they deserve. Urman pointed to nurses and teachers as “respected career” paths that afford their professionals the right to unionize.

“My job is not necessarily more important than them, but it’s definitely not less important,” she said. “Why shouldn’t I have the right to form a union too?”

Unions push changes to law

The answer stems from a distinction made in state law between workers employed by home health care agencies, many of whom are unionized already, and workers like Urman, who are providing so-called “self-directed” care. Considered more like independent contractors by the state, workers in self-directed programs are denied organizing rights.

That’s a law two of the state’s largest unions will push lawmakers to change when the Legislature convenes next month.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota launched its drive to organize home health care workers with a media event yesterday in St. Paul, where PCAs like Urman, joined by their clients and family members, talked about the challenges they face, including low wages, minimal benefits and limited training opportunities.

Sumer Spika of St. Paul, who provides in-home care for her friend’s daughter, said her take-home pay has fallen over the last four years to the point where she can no longer afford to take days off work.

“I have sacrificed financial stability, I live paycheck to paycheck, I have sacrificed health insurance for my family at times, and I do so because I love what I do,” Spika said at the SEIU event. “I believe as a society and a community … we should not only value the ones that we care for, but also the ones that care for them.”

Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has an active campaign to organize workers in self-directed home health care programs, according to Organizing Director Eric Lehto.

AFSCME has represented agency-employed home health care workers in Minnesota for more than 30 years, including 175 workers at Brooklyn Park-based Transition Health Care who won their first contract earlier this year.

“We have been advocating for workers in this industry for decades,” Lehto said. “We believe in collective bargaining rights for all workers, so we’ve been talking to and signing up (self-directed program) workers as well.”

Better Legislature provides hope

The drive to organize self-directed home health care workers parallels recent efforts to win union representation for child-care providers receiving direct subsidies from the state.

Last year, after Council 5 and SEIU Local 284 signed up thousands of child-care providers, Gov. Mark Dayton called for providers to vote in a union election, but a judge ruled Dayton lacked the authority to call an election without legislative approval.

Such approval may be easier to find next year, when labor-endorsed majorities take over both chambers of the Legislature. If they are successful in changing the law, it could pave the way for a union vote among the thousands of home health care workers statewide.

Ziggy Norberg, Urman’s son and client, said a vote to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota is one he hopes his mother gets to take – for her sake and for his own.

“She has given up a lot in order to take care of me,” Norberg said of his mother. “The fact that she does this work for me, on top of caring for my brother and sister as a single parent, all without the benefits and wages of a real career is ridiculous.

“I dread having to get a stranger to come take care of my needs, (but) if the day comes that I do need to find someone else to be my PCA, I should be able to find someone who takes the job seriously like my mom does.”

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