Commentary: Home care and child care workers deserve collective bargaining

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?article_1_290

By Eliot Seide and Jamie Gulley
28 April 2013

ST. PAUL - After years of attacks and attempts to weaken workers’ rights, this year could be a major win for labor in Minnesota. Right now bills in both the House and Senate would extend collective bargaining rights to more than 20,000 workers who currently lack the right to form a union under state law.

The bills cover two groups of workers – consumer-directed home care workers and in-home childcare providers – who provide enormous value to our state.

Home care workers, also known as personal care attendants, are the people who provide support services for seniors and people living with disabilities in their homes. Right now, we face a looming workforce crisis in our public home care programs. As the Baby Boomers age and the need for home-care services increases, there will be a “care gap” of tens of thousands of home care workers over the course of this decade.

Workers in consumer-directed programs who work directly for their clients have no right to form a union, even though funding for home care workers in public programs comes from the state, which also sets reimbursement rates.

FULL story at link.