Oct 19, 2009 4:03 pm US/Central
Home Health Care Workers Choose Not To Unionize
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Illinois workers who are paid by the state to care for severely disabled people in their homes have voted down an effort to unionize.
More than 3,000 home health care workers mailed in their ballots this month; the ballots were counted on Monday and most of those workers voted not to join a union, according to Alan Symonette, an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association, which counted the vote.
The workers could have voted to join the American Federation of State, county of Municipal Employees or the Service Employees International Union, but more than half of them voted to remain non-union.
The vote came after Gov. Pat Quinn signed an executive order paving the way for home health care workers – most of whom care for their own family members – to decide if they should unionize and collectively bargain with the state on how much funding they receive.
Mary Orseske, who cares for her daughter in downstate Mendota, said home health care workers like her need a union to have more lobbying power in Springfield.
Orseske, who voted to join SEIU, said Illinois ranks next to last in the nation in funding for the developmentally disabled, but lawmakers rarely listen to them because they don't have clout. She said it took ten years of lobbying just to get the state to perform background checks on home health care workers.
"We don't have a voice," Orseske said. "Parents have been lobbying for years, but we don't get anywhere ... without this union, we cannot fight for the handicapped. ... You get what you pay for and we get crap."
Representatives at AFSCME did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
Some home health care workers had said before the vote that they did not want to join a union because state law sets a cap on how much they are paid. State law would need to be changed to increase their payments.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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