Independent Providers, Helping One Home at a Time
Cheri Weber helps a client with grocery shopping. (Photo by Steven M. Legge)Being a home care provider is more than a job. It’s a vital service for our communities and a life-changing experience for both the client and provider, but only when everyone gets a fair shake. That’s why AFSCME is organizing home care providers in Vermont and across the country.
After working in a furniture shop for 10 years, Cheri Weber wanted a change of pace. “Something lighter,” she said.
But what she found wasn’t exactly “lighter.” Weber became a home care provider through Choices for Care – a Medicaid-funded, long-term care program that aids older Vermonters and people with disabilities. “It’s a demanding job,” she noted.
Weber is helping to organize a union of home care providers. Vermont Homecare Providers/AFSCME is a group of more than 6,000 caregivers providing in-home care to the elderly and those with disabilities.
Right now, those providers aren’t getting a fair shake. They make approximately $10 an hour. Weber works two other part-time jobs just to make ends meet. “I just want a decent, living wage,” Weber said.
Their clients aren’t getting a fair shake either, she added. “It’s hard to go into a client’s home and see that they need a lot more assistance than what I’m paid to give them. These people need more hours of care.”
In 2008, Weber started working with Jane*, who was 88-years-old. Jane had rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and edema. She required a walker at all times. She lost all use of her hands. And she couldn’t get in and out of bed, so she slept in a lift chair.
Weber worked with Jane five hours a day, six days a week. She helped her get dressed. She bathed her. She prepared her meals and fed her. She kept her home clean. She took Jane to doctor’s appointments and to get groceries. She took her shopping and to get her hair done – though that was on Weber’s own dime.
Weber and Jane became very close. And even though she only got paid for five hours of work a day, she often stayed longer.
“There were things she needed done,” Weber recalled, “Even though my allotted time was up I couldn’t leave. I just couldn’t.”
For four years, Weber helped Jane remain in her home, remain engaged in her community. “I loved the satisfaction of seeing her be able to stay in her own home,” Weber shared. “She was so happy.”
When Jane passed away just a few months ago, Weber lost more than a client. She lost a friend.
Now, Weber has not only a new client, but a new cause.
Members of Vermont Homecare Providers/AFSCME are fighting to get a law passed that would allow them to form a union. More than 1,500 home care workers have already signed cards to say they want representation rights so they can bargain collectively with the state over subsidy rates and other working conditions.
Weber remains hopeful that the union will prevail. “We need real rights for ourselves and for the people we care for,” she said. “And the union will help us get that.”
Send comments to kchildsgraham@afscme.org
