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Stop Trump’s Proposal Before It Hurts Home Care Workers

Stop Trump’s Proposal Before It Hurts Home Care Workers
By AFSCME Staff ·
Tags: Priorities Workers' Rights

Home care workers have some of the toughest jobs in the country, but the Trump administration is disrespecting them and their contributions to society by putting forth a proposal that’s aimed at hurting these workers.

Home care workers care for the most vulnerable members of our communities, often their own family members. They cook for their clients, bathe them, clean up after them, and other critical tasks that allow medically fragile individuals to remain in their own homes with dignity.

But President Donald Trump and his allies are trying to make home care workers the latest victims in their relentless attacks on working families. A new proposal by the administration would strip home care workers of their choice of how to pay for their own health care and their union dues.

The proposal would make it illegal for home care workers to choose to have dues come directly out of their paychecks – an attack on their freedom and their right to stand together for better wages and working conditions. The rule is also an attack on seniors and people with disabilities.

The good news is you can stop this proposal from becoming law.

FIGHT BACK: SAVE HOME CARE

Join your union sisters and brothers across the nation in telling the Trump Administration that you stand with home care workers.

Send a letter protesting this attack against workers »

The billionaires, corporate special interests, and their allies in the administration and Congress aren’t going to stop attacking working people. The Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 case showed just how far they’ll go to try and take away our freedom to stand together in strong unions.

Now they’ve got their sights set on home care workers, whose freedom to join together in a union was undermined by the 2014 U.S. Supreme Court case called Harris v. Quinn. We cannot let this attack stand. Remember: When they come after any one of us, they’re coming after all of us. The only way to fight back is to stick together.

This proposal is the Trump administration’s way of trying to make it harder for home care workers – the majority of whom are women of color – to speak up for themselves and the people they care for. Right-wing politicians are well aware that when workers come together in unions they gain a strong voice and are better able to serve their communities.

Delegates to our union’s 43rd International Convention, held last month in Boston, approved a resolution condemning the proposal as a “blatant attempt to silence women and minority workers” and urging all AFSCME members to write letters opposing it.

One affiliate that would suffer if this proposal becomes law is United Domestic Workers of America (UDW/AFSCME 3930), which represents 100,000 workers who provide care through California’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program.

The proposal would hurt UDW members with health insurance even more by putting their coverage in jeopardy. Under the proposal, home care workers would be prohibited from having their insurance payments automatically deducted from their paychecks.

Here’s what two UDW Executive Board members had to say about this latest assault on home care workers from Trump and his allies:

“Being part of the union helps me to protect this program for my mom. If we lose representation, this program will be in jeopardy. That would be devastating. It’s not just about my job, it’s about the people we care for,” said Florence Crowson of Merced, California, who cares for her mother who has end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

 “Without the union, we would revert back to what we were: a fragmented group of individuals without a voice,” said William Reed of Placer County, California, who cares for his 42-year-old autistic son. “The union for me is a platform for myself so I can be an advocate for my son.”

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