The 60,000 home care workers organized by the SEIU provide personal services, such as bathing and other nonmedical tasks like cooking and cleaning, to the chronically ill and those just released from the hospital. The workers, who are overwhelmingly women and mostly Black or Latina, are the lowest-paid sector in the health-care industry, with wages ranging from $6.50 to $7.50 an hour.

"Management needs to know you have an action plan if they don’t sign," said George Gresham, secretary-treasurer of the local. "Stand up and say ‘yes’ if you want to go on a one-day strike." Union members rose to their feet with shouts of "Yes! Strike!"

Union officials said that if the agencies do not sign a contract union members will be notified of the strike date. Gresham announced that a mass picket line will be held at the negotiation site in midtown Manhattan November 20.

"This was beautiful," said Annie Massenberg, a home care worker for 21 years, of the meeting and the vote by acclamation to strike. "Our raises are way past due and if we don’t get them we’ll go on strike. I’ll be in the front of the line."

Local 1199 president Dennis Rivera told workers that in January the union won agreement from the state government to allocate $1 billion for wage increases over three years. More than 90 percent of financing for home care comes from the city, state, and federal governments.

The union’s proposal starts with a $1.10 hourly increase retroactive to April 2002, with planned yearly increases topping out at $10 an hour.

More than 60 home care agencies, however, have refused to sign a contract. The union says that some of the employer agencies are saying they won’t distribute the money unless they get a guaranteed slice of it themselves. According to Rivera, of the $18 an hour the home care agencies are granted by the government, only $6 is paid to the workers.

Many such agencies work as subcontractors for the city’s largest Medicaid-certified agency, Visiting Nurse Service of New York.

In September, after threatening to strike, the union won a contract with one of the larger agencies, Premier Home Health Service, which employs 3,500 home care workers. On the heels of this victory 2,800 home care workers at Patient Care ratified their first contract October 9.

New York State faces a shortage of home care workers. As the number of elderly people rises the demand for home care services is expected to grow. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts that the number of home care workers will jump by more than 40 percent over the next decade.

"We’re fighting for the benefits and the money," said Marie Guibard. Another worker, Maria Geraldine, added, "This meeting was right. We need the money. Why won’t they sign? If they don’t, we’ll strike."  
 
 
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