“This is an exciting day for 11,000 Connecticut workers–who do some of the most important yet undervalued work in our society–caring for children, seniors, and people with disabilities,” said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry. “This courageous act of giving low-wage workers a voice in their work will raise the quality of those services so that our whole society benefits.”

Both child care providers and home care workers chose SEIU by overwhelming margins in union elections supervised by the American Arbitration Association–and followed that with hundreds of visits and phone calls to legislators explaining how an official voice with the state would raise up both the child care and home care professions.

After years of being denied the same rights as millions of other American workers, Connecticut home care workers and child care providers will finally be able to bargain for fair wages and benefits, program improvements.

Home care workers share an emotional moment with State Senator Edith Prague, the champion of the new legislation.

“Before the General Assembly passed this bill, we didn’t have the same rights that other workers in America have,” said Belinda Haynes, a personal care attendant from East Hartford.

“It’s like people think the work we do isn’t important enough to worry about whether or not we need paychecks we can support our families on or health insurance to take care of ourselves if we get sick or injured, “ said Haynes. “Now we know that our legislators do care about what happens to us, and our consumers. That means a lot to me and the people I care for.”

“Parents can keep their jobs and can feel good about who takes care of their children and have stable childcare they can count on,” said Annette Ridenour, a child care provider in New Haven. “Collective bargaining strengthens the workforce for child care providers because it allows us to be seen and grow as professionals,” said Ridenour. “Our bargaining rights becoming law is a huge step towards a brighter future.”

The legislation passed the House in April and now heads for the desk of Governor Dannel Malloy, who has enthusiastically endorsed the bill: “ I believe our state government has an obligation to protect our most vulnerable, young and old alike. It’s my hope that elected representation will lead to better wages, and therefore more stability in each of the fields – a development that will help both client and care workers,” he said in a statement released moments after Senate passage.

The workers stuck together to overcome an aggressive anti-union campaign from HealthBridge management.

“I really feel like we are a team now,” said Adam Nemergut, an Occupational Therapist.  ”We were before as a rehab dept, but after going through the past few months, and especially the past 2 weeks, I feel we are closer as a team than ever. We stood up for ourselves, and having won 10-1 it feels great. It’s just the first step but I now feel like our voices are being heard.”

The newest 1199 members are looking forward to negotiating their first contract and having the same protections that every other union member has.

“We now realize that working as a team we were able to stand on common ground to accomplish this great task,” said Erin Espitee, a Speech Language Pathologist.  ”We look forward to having our voices heard and being able to stand with our co-workers to fight for what we all deserve!  Our goals are to provide our patients with the best care possible, and win a fair benefit and compensation package that we can all afford.”

Call your organizer at (860) 251-6000 for meeting location information!

The Commissioner states that “legacy services are no longer sustainable.” What that means is no guarantee for people with intellectual and development disabilities and their families to birth to three services, residential placements, respite programs, day programs, or competitive employment. In the Commissioner’s plan “community integration” is nothing more than individuals and families fending for themselves with minimal support. He is telling parents that they will have no alternative but to support their child at home for the rest of their lives.  But we know the people that we support need a variety of settings and a broad array of services.

The department has already closed and plans to close dozens of residential placements without any regard to the 547 “priority” individuals and families who need services right now.  Of the 7500 people who receive DDS services in CT, only 1500 get their services directly from the state — and under the Commissioner’s plan, that number would be reduced to 25.  This plan would destroy all public jobs, and transform private sector DD standards to one notch above poverty –as if caregivers and our families somehow don’t need or deserve a decent standard of living.

We must unite with private sector DDS workers and reach out to families — particularly those with young children who are the future of the system — to create a vision of a just, decent system, and together forge a plan to fight for it.  Join us!

Call your organizer at (860) 251-6000 for meeting location information!

The Commissioner states that “legacy services are no longer sustainable.” What that means is no guarantee for people with intellectual and development disabilities and their families to birth to three services, residential placements, respite programs, day programs, or competitive employment. In the Commissioner’s plan “community integration” is nothing more than individuals and families fending for themselves with minimal support.  He is telling parents that they will have no alternative but to support their child at home for the rest of their lives.  But we know the people that we support need a variety of settings and a broad array of services.

The department has already closed and plans to close dozens of residential placements without any regard to the 547 “priority” individuals and families who need services right now.  Of the 7500 people who receive DDS services in CT, only 1500 get their services directly from the state — and under the Commissioner’s plan, that number would be reduced to 25.  This plan would destroy all public jobs, and transform private sector DD standards to one notch above poverty –as if caregivers and our families somehow don’t need or deserve a decent standard of living.

We must unite with private sector DDS workers and reach out to families — particularly those with young children who are the future of the system — to create a vision of a just, decent system, and together forge a plan to fight for it.  Join us!

We got excellent media coverage of our event, including Channel 10, Channel 12, the Boston Globe, the Providence Journal, and RI Public Radio:

Women and Infants union members picketed outside the hospital Wednesday to raise awareness about a proposal to hire temporary nurses from out of state.

The Women and Infants employees are calling on the hospital to offer permanent positions to local nurses instead of hiring so called “traveler nurses.” These nurses come from outside staffing agencies and travel to hospitals that need temporary help.

The union known as SEIU District 1199 says temporary nurses aren’t as familiar with the hospital’s operations and might compromise its quality ratings in addition to taking local jobs.

Staffing is a major issue at the hospital in all job classifications – and we’re going to keep the pressure on management to ensure safe staffing practices and protect the excellent reputation of our hospital.

Our message was simple: as direct care workers in Connecticut’s group homes and not-for-profit agencies, we are overworked and underpaid.  The State of Connecticut has not provided a Cost of Living Increase in over 4 years, while the cost of our medical benefits has increased each year.  We can’t take the crunch any more and we are suffering.  Here is the video from the forum, courtesy of CT-N.com:

In addition to hearing workers’ testimony, the Public Health Committee heard a presentation outlining the findings of a report prepared by the Connecticut Health Policy Project and commissioned jointly by 1199 and several non-profit provider agencies.  The study details several facts that those of us providing care on the frontlines already know all too well:

• CT health insurance premiums grew by 60% or more between 2004 and 2010
• State funding to DDS private group homes has been flat over the last two decades, squeezing health costs and wages
• Wages for direct care workers at private group homes do not meet CT self-sufficiency standards
• Over 60% of private providers report reducing employee benefits and/or their contribution toward health benefits in the last year to save money
• Most private group home workers are part-time and ineligible for health benefits…[But] of those who are eligible, more are waiving benefits [and] many are turning to Medicaid for coverage as their low wages make them eligible

Health care workers can no longer afford medical coverage for ourselves or our children, and we can no longer make ends meet.  We have to continue pushing forward and raising our voices — for ourselves, our clients & our families!

But we didn’t back down — 1199 members came together and fought back.  We conducted informational picketing, passed out leaflets, put ads in local newspapers, and got elected officials to support us.  We succeeded in pressuring the company to improve its offer — giving us a bigger raise, reducing the weekly cost of insurance, and offering to reimburse a big chunk of what we pay for prescription drugs, deductibles, and other health care costs.  Though it’s not perfect, the final agreement is major improvement from what the company demanded we accept back in February – and it never would have happened without the unity and perseverance of all of the 1199 members at both facilities.

Unfortunately for workers at Genesis’ non-union facilities in Rhode Island – Coventry Skilled Nursing & Rehab, Grandview in Cumberland, Grand Islander in Middletown, Kent Regency in Warwick, and Warren Skilled Nursing & Rehab – they are forced to accept whatever the company demands.  That why we need to help them unite together and join with us – so that together we can fight to improve our working conditions and the quality of care that we can deliver, to lower the cost of health insurance insurance, and ensure respect on the job.  If you know anyone who works at any of the unorganized Genesis facilities, call the Union today at (401) 457-5099 to learn what you can do to help them gain respect and a voice at work.

Thankfully, we are already making progress on that front — as this week nearly 20 Registered Nurses at the Greenville Skilled Nursing & Rehab beat back management’s court appeal of the National Labor Relations Board decision affirming the nurses’ right to join the union and ordering management to bargain with us in good faith.  The RNs voted in October of 2010 to join the union by vote of 18 to 0, but the company appealed the NLRB decision, claiming that all of the nurses were supervisors in an effort to deny these frontline caregivers the right to have a voice at the workplace.

The decision by the US Court of Appeals brings an end to more than 18 months of legal delays.  Congratulations to our newest 1199 members, who can finally enjoy the right that every health care worker deserves to stand up and speak out for better patient care and better working conditions in our facilities!

Karen Baldwin’s testimony:

Amanda Hitchener’s testimony:

That’s why, on March 28, 2012, HealthBridge said that it was ready to bring the real caregivers back home to their residents at the West River Health Center in Milford and end the illegal lockout.  And on Wednesday, April 4, West River workers returned to their same positions, same shifts, same hours, and under the same terms and conditions of the expired contract that was in place before HealthBridge began the lockout, including insurance coverage from Day 1. The CT Post reports:

Union employees returning to the West River Health Care Center on Wednesday after a nearly four-month lockout held an impromptu reunion in the parking lot before the morning shift, hugging, kissing and cheering.

One of the first workers back was Jennifer Toth, who punched in at 6:30 a.m. as part of the kitchen staff. “The residents are glad to have us back,” she said. “They said things haven’t been good without us.”

Rosa Davila cried “Yea, we win!”

Members of District 1199, New England Health Care Workers, wore round, yellow stickers next to their name tags: “Stronger Together: Victory at West River.” [...]

Elizabeth Geneus, who has been working at West River for 11 years, said she was happy to return, even as the negotiations drag on.

“The residents were happy to see us again,” she said. “And this is our family — this is our home. Some of them were crying when they saw us today.”

One of the residents, Stella Chizenko, who has been at West River for almost two years, agreed.

“I was thrilled to death today,” she said. “Thrilled to death. You know, when you’re used to a certain group of people, and then they take them away all of a sudden, you feel lost.”

We’ve asked again and again on the picket line, “Who would treat nursing home residents and their caregivers this way?  What kind of people own this home?”  But even greedy people can see when they are getting beat.  They locked us out – but they couldn’t keep us down. We have returned to our jobs with our heads held high, ready to continue our commitment to providing the highest quality care for our residents.  Our struggle won’t be over until we secure a fair contract that provides stability and security for both caregivers and residents.

To that end, we have also proposed a “cooling off” period for the rest of 2012 (or until we reach an agreement, whichever comes first) that would provide that HealthBridge would not lock out its employees or unilaterally implement any changed terms and conditions of employment, while we would agree not to strike at any of its facilities.  (Click here to read our proposal in a recent letter we sent to HealthBridge’s lawyer.) HealthBridge has not yet responded to our offer.

“As a consumer of home care services for over 25 years, I’ve seen how the lack of stability and benefits for the work force affects consumers,” said Mary-Kay Webster of Newington. “My ability to remain in the community depends on this work being attractive so people are willing to stay in these jobs. Today’s vote means that we can come together with one voice as workers and consumers to improve and refine programs like mine, so they can continue to exist.”

The vote, completed by mail-in secret ballot, is just one step on workers’ journey toward a voice for quality jobs and quality care.  Though almost all American workers have the right under federal law to vote to form a union and bargain a contract if a majority desires, home care workers have faced years of political hurdles to get to this point and still lack the right to bargain a contract.

“I think it’s only fair that we have the same rights that millions of other workers have, but the right to bargain collectively has been denied us,” said Jennifer Brown, of Windsor, a provider of direct support services, “Forming our union was an important step, but we’re not there yet. We need to make sure that the state values the work we do by making us partners with a voice in our state’s home care system, and that means giving us the right to bargain a contract.”