For Immediate Release
Tuesday, June 12, 2001
San Diego Approves Unionization for Home Care Workers
AFSCME Applauds County Vote Opening Door for 12,000 to Collectively Bargain
Washington, DC —The 12,000 workers who provide home care for seniors, veterans and people with disabilities in San Diego County, CA, will now themselves have the opportunity to negotiate for better economic conditions. With a 5-0 vote termed "historic" by leaders of the United Domestic Workers of America (UDW), the County Board of Supervisors approved two ordinances establishing a public authority as the workers' employer of record, and setting rules for them to organize and collectively bargain.
Today's vote culminated a multi-year effort by the San Diego-based UDW, an affiliate of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO. Workers currently receive only the minimum wage and lack health insurance or other benefits, and are organizing with home care consumers to build support for their cause.
"This is a great victory for home care workers. Now we finally have the right to build a union and win better pay and health insurance," said Marta Gonzales, a member of the UDW/AFSCME organizing committee.
"We have worked for this day for 20 years. Now we are ready to organize all the workers and fight for a good contract with the living wage and the benefits that these workers deserve," said UDW President Ken Seaton-Msemaji. "Consumers will be able to get improved services and it will now be easier to recruit and retain home care workers."
County board members were the focus in recent months, as workers, consumers and religious leaders worked intensively to develop broad-based support for the pair of ordinances. On June 7, over 500 workers and consumers rallied at the county building.
The San Diego organizing campaign is a model for AFSCME drives that are now beginning in 28 other California counties, where AFSCME has jurisdiction to recruit 60,000 home care workers who do not currently have union representation. In San Diego alone the number of people needing home care services is expected to double by 2014, so working conditions of caregivers will continue to be in the public eye.
