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

Although they number in the tens of thousands, home health care workers and their clients have been largely invisible. That has changed as workers have won union representation and a first contract.

With first contract, home health care workers are invisible no more
By Barb Kucera, Workday Minnesota
June 30, 2015

ST. PAUL- 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.”

FULL story at link.