Home Care Workers Win!

DES MOINES, IOWA

July 4 will go down in Iowa labor history as the day the state's 2,500 home care providers won the right to organize. At a capitol ceremony, Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack (shown with providers at the signing ceremony) issued an executive order requiring the director of the Department of Human Services to bargain with the workers' authorized union. Eleven days later, AFSCME Council 61 was certified as their exclusive representative. New council Pres. Dan Homan said the new members deserve the "basic benefits afforded to their counterparts who work in state-run facilities."