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NEWS & LETTERS, November 2002
New York health aides win contract
New York--After a two year struggle, and the imminent
threat of the first declared home health aide strike in the country, over 3,000
Local 1199 SEIU home health aides--most of them African-American and Hispanic
women--won a union contract from Premier Home Health Services. These minimum
wage workers, living in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S., won a 20%
increase to a guaranteed minimum wage of $6.55 an hour. They also won employer-paid healthcare benefits; one week
paid days off--either as sick days or vacation. Clearly the real victory was
that the union won the election and now forced Premier to the bargaining table.
The gains won are guaranteed and cannot be altered; workers can no longer be
fired on a boss' whim, and workers have the right to file grievances. The president of Local 1199 SEIU, Dennis Rivera,
acknowledged the humble nature of the victory: "While the gains of this
contract are very modest, they finally have a union. And we are coming back for
more in 15 months." The "more" that Rivera talks of will have to
be considerable, especially when you realize that in Memphis, for a family of
three to raise themselves out of poverty a living wage would be about $17 an
hour, and how much more it costs to live in New York City. Any victory for labor, especially when it is some of the
lowest paid women in the country, opens the door for others to follow. There are
over 15,000 other home health aides with NY agencies. They too have voted in the
union and can only be heartened by this initial victory. --Union supporter |
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