FUTURE OF LONG-TERM CARE: Hundreds of LTC Workers Gather at Hearing to Support One Long-Term Care Union
Freeman: Uniting with a single voice is only way to lift boat for all long-term care workers
Want to find out more about uniting all long-term care worker in ONE union? Visit StrongerAsOne.org
On July 14 and 15, hundreds of ULTCW nursing home and homecare workers from up and down California gathered in Manhattan Beach to listen to a hearing to determine the future of long-term care workers in the state.
Each local that represents long-term care workers in California – ULTCW, Local 521 and UHW – participated and testified in the two-day long hearings.
The hearing this week is the second of two to take place in response to a plan set forth by SEIU delegates starting eight years ago to re-organize SEIU members into industry-based locals. For long-term care workers, this means uniting into one healthcare local that specializes in long-term care.
“We’re stronger in numbers,” said Pam Hall, a ULTCW homecare worker who attended the hearings. “If all homecare workers come together, we can lift the boat for everyone and change Sacramento.”
ULTCW President Tyrone Freeman, in his presentation to the hearing officer, said that this isn’t an issue of one local being better than the others.
“UHW, Local 521 and ULTCW are all fine locals, who work daily to do what’s best for their workers,” he said. “But what we’ve come to discuss today is what is best for the future of long-term care in California.”
A union that can be 100 percent focused on long-term care and run programs specifically designed for long-term care workers’ needs can serve these workers best, Freeman said.
ULTCW is the only of the three unions completely focused on long-term care.
Because homecare contracts, are negotiated on a county by county basis, homecare workers from ULTCW testified that we need a statewide strategy to lift all workers up.
“We need to speak with a single voice to really affect change in government,” said Wilda Walker, a homecare worker from Alameda County that testified on Tuesday.
“Further, my bothers and sisters in Tulare or Humboldt counties, for instance, don’t make the same $11.50 per hour I make in Alameda,” Walker said. “They do the same work, pay the same high gas prices, but just because they live in less politically-favorable areas, make less money. That isn’t right.”
During the hearings, long-term care workers also took advantage of the huge gathering of members to send e-mails, make phone calls and write letters to the governor to stop his proposed budget cuts to IHSS. He has proposed to cut $355 million to the In-Home Supportive Services program. Read the story here.
Click here for the photo gallery of the event.
Want to find out more about uniting all long-term care worker in ONE union? Visit StrongerAsOne.org