WHEREAS:
Medicare is the national social insurance program that provides medical coverage to Americans aged 65 and older and people with disabilities; and
WHEREAS:
Social Security provides a foundation of income on which workers can build a secure retirement and provides valuable social insurance protection to workers who become disabled and to families whose breadwinner dies; and
WHEREAS:
Home care workers paid by Medicaid to provide long-term supports and services to a dependent spouse or child do not earn Medicare and Social Security benefits for this work because current federal law does not regard the hard work of paid spouse and parent home care providers as “employment” for the purposes of Social Security, Medicare or federal unemployment insurance, an exclusion rooted in the historic devaluation of feminized labor, making this an issue of gender justice; and
WHEREAS:
It must be made clear that everyone who does the work of caring for a dependent spouse or child in the home, regardless of gender, is impacted by the devaluation of feminized labor and the false belief that women are natural-born caretakers whose rightful place is in the home performing unwaged labor; and
WHEREAS:
Women still carry the bulk of the societal burden of family caretaking, and thus we must ensure they are protected and fully resourced and enjoy the benefits all other workers receive; and
WHEREAS:
A union working towards social justice must take all necessary action to end discriminatory practices rooted in oppression, and undoing this historic wrong will benefit all home care providers while also working to combat the sexism that still plagues the home care industry today.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
AFSCME will lobby Congress to change federal law to recognize the paid work of spouse and parent home care providers as employment for the purposes of Social Security, Medicare and federal unemployment insurance, in order to address the historic injustice of the denial of these benefits to spouse and parent home care providers, benefits they have earned for their difficult and valuable work.
SUBMITTED BY:
Editha Adams, President and Delegate
UDW/AFSCME Local 3930
California