Senator Mitchell, Council Ransom, and SMUD Board Fishman Sign Homecare Workers Day Pledge
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.
With more than 10,000 people in America turning 65 each day, the skyrocketing demand for in-home care has made home care work one of the fastest growing — and lowest paying — professions in the country. Those who have risen to the occasion, California’s care providers, make up one the most diverse workforces statewide. California’s home care workers are 79 percent women, 50 percent are women of color, and four in ten are immigrants.
Ever since the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) barreled through our state, California has come to find just how crucial home care workers are to the health and well-being of our aging and disabled community. However, home care workers have had to fight, year after year, for even the most basic protections. Now is the time to recognize these tireless workers by declaring September 4, 2020, as “Home Care Day” in an effort to educate Californians about the contribution home care workers have made to our great state, and bring many to question how we will grow this workforce to be ready for our booming senior population.
As part of declaring September 4th “Home Care Day,” I pledge to support the following for all home care workers in California:
- Family sustaining wages and benefits, including healthcare, paid time off and retirement security, that reflect the value of their work
- Training programs and career development opportunities
- Working conditions that are free of harassment and discrimination
Home care workers deserve to be treated like the heroes they are; the above initiatives are standard in many professions, and home care should be no different. Home care workers help the aging and disabled population live fulfilling, dignified lives. And, with the declaration of “Home Care Day” on September 4, 2020, California will honor those who have chosen this vocation, and welcome those with a new appreciation for it.
