With first contract, home health care workers are invisible no more

LaTanya Hughes remembers the long hours of lobbying the Minnesota Legislature to win the right to have a union. Then came weeks spent knocking on doors and phoning other home health care workers to build support for the August 2014 vote.

As a member of the negotiations team for SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, Hughes spent more hours bargaining with the State of Minnesota.

“It was tough when we were in negotiations, wondering ‘Is this going to end?’” she said. But all the effort was worth it, she said, with Wednesday’s launch of the first-ever union contract for home health care workers in Minnesota.

“It feels wonderful,” said Hughes, a Minneapolis resident who has worked for 18 years providing care for her daughter, who has cerebral palsy. “It’s the start of something better.”

The two-year contract in effect July 1 covers approximately 27,000 workers across the state who provide home care to people with disabilities and seniors. Key victories include paid time off, a raise in the hourly wage floor from $9 to $11 by 2016, a grievance and arbitration procedure to address wage theft and a training fund to improve the quality of care. View the full contract on the SEIU website.

“I am really excited about what this means for me as a worker,” said Cortney Phillips, a home care worker in Annandale since 2009. “I struggled over the years with not having paid time off,” which often meant going to work when she was sick.

Some home care workers experienced problems, like not being paid, but had no grievance process to address these issues, she said. “It was really difficult because we had nowhere to turn.”

Phillips and Hughes also are looking forward to getting training that will be offered for the first time under the contract.

“I love what I do. That’s why I stay with it. I feel what I do is meaningful,” Phillips said. “Not only does having a contract raise the visibility of what I do, it also gives me an avenue to improve the quality of work I am doing.”

The workers and the clients of the home health care industry, although they number in the tens of thousands, have been largely invisible, the workers said. Gaining union representation has raised awareness of the critical role performed by workers and the concerns of their clients.

Hughes said workers will continue to organize to improve their pay, working conditions and the quality of care they provide.

“We plan on doing better in the next contract,” she noted. “This is just the first step.”