On Home Care 2020, Senator Holly Mitchell, Tracy City Council member Rhodesia Ransom, and SMUD Board member Gregg Fishman are celebrating and recognizing the home care workers united in SEIU Local 2015 and our vital role in the COVID-19 response helping our nation’s seniors and loved ones with disabilities to live safely and independently at home.
All three extended their support to these essential workers by signing our pledge below to demand a better future for home care.
We recognize that home care workers do some of the most important, frontline healthcare work in our communities. California’s more than 595,000 home care workers provide essential direct, hands-on care — such as bathing, dressing, toileting, preparing meals, administering medications and in-home treatments, and companionship — that ensures California’s 6 million parents, grandparents and loved ones with disabilities can live independently at home. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, home care workers have continued to show up for their clients to keep them healthy and safe, while risking their own lives by going out into the community — many times without proper protective equipment. …
Home care and nursing home workers throughout California rejoice the first place win of Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom for state Governor.
At the start of his campaign, Gavin Newsom met with members of SEIU 2015, walked a day in our shoes, and expressed his commitment to work with us to support long term care policies when he becomes governor. In return, the membership voted to endorse him and help get him to victory.
“The Caregivers of SEIU Local 2015 endorsed Gavin Newsom because of his commitment to the most vulnerable in the state and those that care for them. Thanks to our members’ efforts, California voters and especially communities of color, understood that Gavin Newsom was the best choice for working families. As we focus on November, we will continue to hold elected officials accountable to the needs of workers,” said Laphonza Butler, President of SEIU Local 2015. …
California: Seniors and People with Disabilities Do Not Want To Be Tracked. Do Not Threaten Their Quality Care and Privacy #StopEVV
By April Verrett, Executive Vice President, SEIU 2015
Imagine being required by law to carry a device with you 24/7 that tracks everywhere you go, everything you do, and shares your information with multi-billion dollar companies. This is a reality that seniors and people with disabilities are currently facing due to an ill-intended 21st Century Cures Act provision that was lobbied for by multi-billion dollar corporations seeking to prey and make a profit on vulnerable Americans. These corporate predators ensured they’d be putting more taxpayer money in their own pockets by mandating states to adopt new technologies for the electronic tracking of seniors and the disabled. Technologies that they would build and bill the federal government for. …
Democracy Schools: Where the Power of our Movement Meets the Challenges of our Democracy
This weekend, we kicked off round two of the Democracy Schools — our innovative program to empower and strengthen our membership in advance of the 2018 elections. We are doing these trainings all over the state — from rural Humboldt county to the Central Valley to the urban cores of San Francisco and Los Angeles. This program will provide caregivers with the tools they need to create change in their neighborhoods and communities, and hold their elected officials accountable.
Our first trainings of 2018, were conducted last Saturday in Fresno County, in the center of California’s agricultural Central Valley. Over 50 caregivers showed up early Saturday morning with a burning passion, drive, and desire to strengthen their skills and create lasting, effective change not only for themselves, but for all Californians. …
Organizing long term care workers was no easy task, but today we are over 370,000 workers strong
For far too long women were unjustly treated as second class citizens. Until the turn of the 20th century, women were not allowed to vote, work, or to get an education. And occupations which are traditionally considered female or domestic labor — such as home care — have yet to be given the respect, pay, or dignity that they deserve.
Over the years, valiant women have stood up against injustice and have paved the way to a more fair nation that accepts and understands the value of a woman’s work, mind, and politics. Today, the over 370,000 home care and nursing home workers who now make up SEIU Local 2015 are part of this broader struggle for equality, dignity, and respect. …
Congress is failing us yet again.
Working families are sick and tired of the self-imposed crises Congressional leaders have repeatedly created over the past year. It’s unfair and inhumane to the people of this country.
The truth is that while Congressional leaders partake in political games and refuse to support bipartisan solutions, we the people are affected the most.
Lives are at stake. Families are being ripped apart. Healthcare services remain at risk.
The future of workers like Norma Zelaya and those around her is up in the air. Norma is a Temporary Protected Status recipient, has been in this country for many years, and has dedicated her life to providing care to seniors and people with disabilities who have no one else to help them live. …
Over the last 100 days we’ve protested, tweeted, and made phone calls to Members of Congress who thought it would be a good idea to repeal our health care, rip families apart even though they’ve made this country their home, and make substantive tax cuts to affect programs that protect working class Americans.
This past year members of SEIU Local 2015 have been instrumental in protecting the Affordable Care Act, preventing tax cuts, and standing up for DREAMers by putting pressure on Members of Congress byway of protests, phone calls, and tweets. With the midterm and California gubernatorial election on the horizon, California caregivers have committed to standing up for leaders who will work for the people instead of corporate interests. …
Dr. Martin Luther King taught us that to makes strides toward a world that is socially just, you must dream that the impossible is possible. When faced with adversity, as he was many times, your will to make a change is the fire that will keep you going.
This past year we’ve been faced with many uncertainties and attacks on our well-being but we did not surrender. Instead, we dreamt of the day that we would have the opportunity to make America a country for the people again and Brothers and Sisters, that time has come. This election year is our chance to make our dreams come true by electing leaders who will be champions for the people, and by the people. Leaders who will stand up for what the people need instead of corporate greed. …
Staffers of College Vista nursing facility in Eagle Rock, CA staged a protest outside the facility today calling on management to bargain in good faith and to continue to provide the employees and residents a safe, healthy, and dignified life.
The Sun-Mar corporation has failed to maintain contract standards and has been refusing to provide its workers with a living wage instead they’ve been insisting on making more front-line cuts to pay for unnecessary administrative costs that are already higher than the industry standard.
“I have dedicated more than 30 years of my life working at College Vista Post-Acute facility” Said Lourdes, a CNA at the facility, I love people, I love taking care of them and seeing the smiles I bring to their faces. …
Our state is aging — it’s no big secret. Our senior population is expected to increase from 5 million today to 12 million by 2060. California will face both challenges and opportunities due to this drastic shift in the population of people who require long-term care services and support services to remain active and independent in their homes and community. At present, there are approximately 100,000 private home care aides in California but the need is expected to grow.
Ensuring that this workforce has a voice, is fairly compensated, and treated with respect is key if we are to care for the rapidly growing senior population. This workforce is primarily employed by large for-profit companies incredibly isolated and subject to abuse. In addition, home care workers are geographically spread out and because of the nature of their work and industry seldom have contact with co-workers and often change worksites, usually providing care from one home to the next. …
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