(MintPress) – In a near unanimous vote, the Vermont State Senate gave approval for 6,000 home care workers across the state to form a union, a major boost to low-wage earners who currently live near or below the poverty line. The vote could clear the way for unionization if the House approves the measure in the coming weeks.
“Quite frankly these folks are on the bottom of the food chain,” said Democratic State Senator Ann Cummings, last week. “They work very hard, and receive very little in the way of benefits.”
Home care workers provide essential services, delivering subsidized care to disabled or elderly citizens across the state of roughly 626,000 people.
Many home care workers currently make less than $10 per hour and do not receive mileage reimbursements for the long distances traveled. Using personal vehicles, home care workers are expected to help patients by driving them to medical appointments and supermarkets.
Nationally, collective bargaining by low-wage service workers has helped secure pay raises and improved benefits. In a recent case, roughly 6,000 security guards and janitors in Minnesota gained pay raises of $1.20 per hour over the next three years. Working through Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 26, negotiators helped workers gain one additional vacation day and lower health insurance premiums during talks held earlier this month.
“We want to make sure they do have some voice when it comes to issues of pay, because right now they have nothing,” said Karen Connor, a communications director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Connor represents one of two unions vying to represent the thousands of voiceless home care workers. “There’s no one to speak up for them, or to point out issues or problems, because right now there is no vehicle at all for the state to even hear them.”
The workers are employed by the state of Vermont as independent contractors but are currently unable to negotiate collectively for pay increases and improved benefits because of federal anti-trust laws. Two unions, The American Federation of State, County and SEIU 1199 Health Care Workers East, could represent the home care workers if Vermont Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin gives final approval.
It remains unclear how big a pay raise the home care workers will receive after unionization, but collectively, unionized employees typically receive higher wages than their nonunion counterparts. According to a 2012 report by the U.S. Department of Labor, union workers earn on average $4.95 more per hour than their nonunion counterparts.
Total payroll for the home care workforce in Vermont is an estimated $40 million annually, meaning every 1 percent increase in pay would amount to $400,000 annually.
The wage increases will pump money into Vermont’s economy, and is expected to build momentum for the enfeebled union movement nationwide. Currently just 11.3 percent of U.S. workers are represented by a union, a 100-year low, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.