Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Direct Care Workers in Massachusetts join SEIU

Home health assistants vote to join union Overwhelming 'yes' gives momentum, strength to SEIU By Jeffrey Krasner Globe Staff / The Boston Globe/November 9, 2007 (This article was submitted to me by a fellow union member from the Penobscot Chapter of MSEA-SEIU. Thanks Tom! -Helen) Thousands of home health assistants in Massachusetts overwhelmingly voted to join the powerful Service Employees International Union, giving the union strong momentum as it moves toward its larger goal of attempting to organize about 55,000 workers at Boston's teaching hospitals. The vote comes at a time when union membership nationwide continues a decadeslong decline. SEIU has been able to buck that trend, partly by emphasizing ways to improve workers' career development, not just immediate improvements in wages and benefits, said Thomas A. Kochan, professor of management at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. "This victory is a big boost and a basis for saying they're going to be a more significant player in the healthcare industry," Kochan said. "SEIU has a vision of being the preeminent healthcare union and seeing their members as people who should have opportunities to move up and develop their skills and capabilities." Officials from 1199SEIU, which claims to be the largest union local in the world with more than 300,000 members, said the vote will help its hospital organizing efforts. "SEIU Healthcare is growing all over the nation," said Dennis Rivera, chairman of the healthcare arm of the union. "With this win, we'll have more than 34,000 members in Massachusetts. That will be a boost to us to do the political and organizing work, and we'll have more resources." After the voting results were made public yesterday, Mayor Thomas M. Menino reiterated his earlier support for the union's plan to organize teaching hospital workers. "I'll always stand with SEIU because they fight for the people in our society who need somebody on their side - the personal care assistants, the janitors, the hotel workers," Menino said. Paul Levy, chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, has said he doesn't believe the organizing effort will help the hospital provide better care or improve its research and teaching. Officials from other Boston hospitals have not commented publicly on SEIU's campaign. A law passed last year - sponsored by state Senator Steven A. Tolman, Democrat of Brighton - enabled the healthcare workers to vote on union membership through a mail-in ballot. About 22,000 ballots were mailed several weeks ago. The returned ballots included 6,135 votes to unionize and 135 opposing the move. Jeff Hall, a spokesman for SEIU, said about 5,000 addresses may have been incorrect, partially accounting for the low vote total, but the percentage of returned ballots was still high, he said. Home health assistants are hired by individual patients or family members, and provide such services as bathing, feeding, and cooking. They are paid directly by the state's Medicaid program, Mass Health. Union officials said they are assembling a bargaining committee, which will set priorities for wage and benefit negotiations with the state. Current pay for the attendants is $10.84 an hour with no healthcare benefits. In organizing the home health assistants, SEIU focused on issues that transcended wages and benefits. For example, it highlighted the growing need for healthcare attendants as the population ages, and the possibility that home care could help the state save money by keeping residents out of expensive nursing homes. "It was the labor movement that recognized a social problem in our society," said Tolman, "and it was the labor movement that proposed a solution." SEIU has also called attention to the rules surrounding union organizing. Procedures established by the National Labor Relations Act generally give management opportunities to delay a final vote. That works against most organizing efforts, said Jeff Toner, a consultant who provides communication services to unions and management. "In organizing, time is the enemy of the union and the friend of management," he said. "It gives management more time to tell their side of the story." In its early efforts to organize Boston's teaching hospitals, SEIU has sought to put in place what it calls "free and fair" election rules. Such rules would prohibit management from taking a public position on the unionizing effort, and could greatly speed union votes by allowing prospective members to use cards to indicate their support. Mike Fadel, executive vice president of 1199SEIU, said the success of the mail-in voting by home care assistants shows that "healthcare workers expect to be able to vote in a free and fair election." Overall union membership in the United States has dropped from about 35 percent of the workforce in the 1950s to 12 percent in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2006, about 15.4 million workers were union members. "SEIU is an alternative model for union organizing," said Daniel F. Jacoby, chair of the Center for Labor Studies at the University of Washington. "They seem to be able to work in different modes, sometimes working directly with business to create agreements that make it easier to organize."

Monday, November 19, 2007

Dues Error for Home Care for Maine Workers

Last week, a problem was discovered with the fair share paid by Home Care for Maine direct care workers who chose to not join the union. What happened was a miscommunication that ended up with fair share payers paying the fair share of full-time workers when they are only working part-time. The error is being corrected. Union headquarters is sending out a letter explaining the error and how it will be corrected. When you receive this mailing, fill out the pink application card, choose to join or become a service fee payer and make sure to fill in the amount of hours you work per week. This determines the amount of dues you pay. If you work full time and join MSEA-SEIU, your dues will be $18.20 per pay period. If you work 16 to 32 hours per week and join, your dues will be $10.92 per pay period. If you work less than 16 hours per week and join, your dues will be $5.46 per pay period. If you work 8 hours or less per week your dues can be waived. You must notifiy MSEA-SEIU if you want to waive your dues. If you choose not to join MSEA-SEIU and work full time, your fair share will be $9.41 per pay period. If you work 16 to 32 hours per week, your fair share will be $5.65 per pay period. If you work 16 to 8 hours per week, your fair share will be $2.82 per pay period. If you work less than 8 hours per week, your fair share can be waived. You must notify MSEA-SEIU if you want to waive your fair share. The reasoning behind the "fair share" service fee is that everyone benefits from what a few accomplish. We all got the base pay raise and the quarterly stipend raise. If we should gain benefits, everyone will get them, not just those who joined MSEA-SEIU. I strongly urge you to join and become a full-fledged member of MSEA-SEIU Chapter 771. We are stronger together. As a member, you can enjoy discounts at retailers, hotels & motels, automotive repair shops, oil dealers, eye care specialists, etc. throughout the state. You also have full voting rights at chapter meetings and on future contracts. You have a stronger voice to make comments and requests. Once you receive the mailer from MSEA, if you've got further questions, please send an email to me or call union headquarters. As I know more about this, I will post it.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

771 Officers and Delegates to MSEA-SEIU's 2007 Convention

from left to right
Denise Adams, Delegate; Janet (Dixie) Lewis, Delegate;
Dean Conway, Delegate; Joe Berry, Vice-President, Delegate;
Helen Hanson, President; CarolAnn Cammack, Secretary, Delegate
absent Leslie Hickey, Treasurer, Delegate

Chapter 771 Receives a Warm Welcome

At MSEA-SEIU’s annual convention, Chapter 771 received a warm welcome from fellow union brothers and sisters. Chapter 771 also received a lot of support. Chapter 771 is brand new to MSEA-SEIU Local 1989. Chapter 771 was first organized with Alpha-One workers about two years ago. Last year, Home Care for Maine workers voted to unionize. A contract for Home Care for Maine was negotiated and passed back in August. Chapter 771 is different from other MSEA-SEIU locals in that 771 is made up of PCAs/PSSs (Personal Care Attendants/Personal Support Specialists) that go into a consumer’s home and help them with daily living tasks. Things like personal care to laundry to light housekeeping to doing groceries, running errands and getting to doctors’ appointments. Many of us work independently, work part-time and have no benefits whatsoever. The work we do is very important. We help keep our elders and those with major debilitating diseases out of nursing homes. They would rather be in their own home where they are comfortable. When I first joined the union, the stark difference between us PSSs and state employees was noticable. That difference is still there, but I am feeling much better about 771 being a part of MSEA-SEIU because MSEA-SEIU has a lot of pull and influence with the legislature and various commissions of state government. This is something I saw with my own eyes when I testified before the Department of Health and Human Services Commission in support of an increase in the reimbursement rate for the Homemaker Program back in May of this year. That influence is something that 771 can draw upon to gain better wages, paid sick time and vacations and health benefits. At the very end of convention, after the call to adjourn was voted upon and everyone was leaving the hall, Bruce Hodson, our MSEA-SEIU president-elect, came up to me and welcomed me and 771 aboard. That was something very nice and something that meant a lot to me. I think that Chapter 771 is right where we need to be. MSEA-SEIU has the sway that 771 can use with state government. Most of the funding Alpha-One and Home Care for Maine receives is from DHHS. Those on the DHHS Commission and in the Legislature recoginize our purple. I also want to welcome aboard the Child Care Providers in Maine that voted to unionize. That is great! At convention, Ginette Rivard was elected vice president and Bruce Hodson was elected president. I feel very comfortable with them as our leaders. I do not know too much about Bruce. Ginette has worked with non-profit organizations and has done a lot of political action work. Convention was wonderful. All the welcomes and support that 771 received was fantastic. It eased my reservations about becoming part of MSEA-SEIU. Together, 771 and MSEA-SEIU can achieve good things. Submitted by Helen Hanson, President of Chapter 771