Independent home care workers who provide services to Medicaid-eligible consumers voted to unionize in Missouri and Wisconsin on May 5 and 6, respectively, totaling 17,000 workers who will be represented there.
In Missouri, 12,000 self-employed home care workers will be represented by the Missouri Home Care Union (MHSU), which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation for State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
“Missouri attendants and their consumers have been coming together in Jefferson City to fight against state budget cuts that threaten home care for over 40,000 Missourians,” according to MHSU’s website.
In Wisconsin, 5,000 independent home care workers will be represented by SEIU. “The vote could result in a minimum wage being negotiated” for these workers, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Number of Personal Care Aides Underestimated
In 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were a total of 817,000 personal care aides. “A growing number of direct-care workers work directly for consumers and their families rather than being employed through an agency,” explains PHI FACTS 3: Who Are Direct-Care Workers? (pdf).
The Employment Projections Program estimates that nearly a quarter of these personal care aides were either directly employed by private households or were self-employed, but PHI suggests that these figures significantly underestimate the actual number of home care workers and the proportion that are hired directly by consumers across the country.
As evidence, PHI notes that the count of home care workers who are part of state or county public authorities currently totals over 400,000 and is now even higher with the addition of the workers in Missouri and Wisconsin.
The newly unionized home care workers in Missouri and Wisconsin who work now under the aegis of a home care council are joining their counterparts in five other states: California, Oregon, Washington, Michigan, and Massachusetts.
– by Deane Beebe
