WHEREAS:

In 2020, home health and personal care aides held 3.5 million jobs providing direct care for older Americans and people with disabilities in clients’ homes, group homes or care communities; and

WHEREAS:

Many direct care workers live in poverty and are commonly immigrants (more than 20%), people of color (more than 60%) and women (more than 80%), making them the largest group of women workers of color in the nation; and

WHEREAS:

Low wages and difficult working conditions are driving these workers out of home and community-based service jobs at a time when demand for this work by an aging population is greater than ever; and

WHEREAS:

Despite the physically challenging and emotionally demanding work performed by home care and personal care workers, low Medicaid reimbursement rates keep wages near poverty levels, a condition that, in part, is a result of exclusionary regulatory frameworks rooted in the institution of slavery; and

WHEREAS:

Improving the wages and benefits of home care workers, many of whom are the heads of their households, has been shown to improve the lives of workers and their families, address the inequality that disproportionately impacts women of color, substantially reduce turnover, improve clients’ access to reliable and quality services and enable them to remain in their homes to live independently.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

AFSCME will advocate for increased federal Medicaid funding by lobbying Congress and sponsoring legislation to increase wages, protections, benefits and career opportunities for direct care workers who provide vital services in their clients’ homes, group homes or care communities, with an emphasis on job quality and ending the structural inequality pervasive in the direct care industry; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

AFSCME supports efforts to increase access to home and community-based services for older Americans and people with disabilities while ensuring individuals who believe institutional care is more appropriate continue to have access to such care; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

AFSCME will work to ensure that federal funds for home and community-based services support and allow care workers to collectively bargain, so these workers can fight to improve wages to at least $20 an hour and win better benefits and working conditions for care workers, toward the goal of ending racism, poverty and inequality in the direct care industry.

SUBMITTED BY:
Editha Adams, President and Delegate
UDW/AFSCME Local 3930
California