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CIL and SEIU: Can This Marriage Work?By Janine Bertram Kemp A Message from the Executive Director:Chicken Little ran around her world announcing, “The sky is falling.” Is this well-known fable coming true in Pennsylvania? In a move that has rocked the Pennsylvania independent living community, Tri-County Patriots for Independent Living (TRIPIL) announced on May 17th that its direct-care workers (personal care assistants, or PCAs) had voted to unionize. Will unions mean striking workers and the loss of consumer control? Some believe that Service Employees International Union, which represents nursing home workers, is “sleeping with the enemy” and supporting the institutionalization of people with disabilities. “People are nervous and upset,” said Kathleen Kleinmann, executive director of TRIPIL. “They think I’ve flipped my lid. But I cannot stand in the way of this movement by being a deterrent to organizing. I’ve been involved in IL since 1982, and as much as I mouth that direct-care workers should have decent wages and benefits, I haven’t lifted a finger.” TRIPIL Services employs 37 direct-care workers and has 200 consumer-employed PCAs, and Kleinmann noted that the office has a two-tiered employment system. The office staff receives the best benefits, wages, vacation, and sick leave that Kleinmann can manage, while the PCAs receive low wages and nothing else. The policy in Pennsylvania and many other states is that direct-care worker time can be billed and reimbursed, but benefit costs cannot be recovered. Her hope is that SEIU will join with direct-care workers and call for the state to provide benefits as part of its reimbursement package. “I’ve got a three-page document hammered out by this state’s disability community, including independent living centers and Pennsylvania ADAPT,” Kleinmann said. “But they got cold feet and said they didn’t trust SEIU. I don’t require trust. I believe in checks and balances. If I can enforce the terms of the agreement, I can live with that.” The agreement, called Guiding Principles, out-lines a strategic partner-ship between the disability community and SEIU. It says they will work together for their common interests and agree to disagree whenever their interests diverge. All parties will “collaborate for a reliable home- and community-based personal assistance services system that provides workers with a living wage and benefits and provides consumers with reliable and consistent consumer-directed and controlled support.” The document also says SEIU will engage in dispute resolution without strikes, sick-outs and work slow-downs and that the consumer has the “absolute right to select, fire and supervise his/her personal assistant.” The document was signed by the Pennsylvania Council on independent Living (PCIL) and SEIU, District 1199P. Currently TRIPIL Services, with worker permission, is the only CIL to provide SEIU with a list of direct-care workers, who then voted to unionize. “Two hundred workers is a good start,” said Jesse Wilderman, organizing director of SEIU District 1199P. “But can you imagine how much stronger our lobbying voice would be if we represented the three to four thousand direct-care workers Pennsylvania CILs manage?” SEIU and the disability community have had a controversial relationship, primarily because the union represents employees in institutions and nursing homes, regarded by some in the latter group as “the guards at the concentration camp.” Bob Kafka, national organizer for American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, is familiar with the controversy. “ADAPT has been working on the issue of wages and benefits for attendants for many years,” he said. “Unionization is one but not the only road to increased wages and benefits for attendants. Though we want to work with unions, we can’t give up our principles of consumer direction and consumer control. We must not forget Laguna Honda (the world’s largest nursing home in San Francisco) is unionized by SEIU, and many state institutions are unionized under AFSCME. We need to challenge the union movement to be more responsive to our concerns.” According to Wilderman, there are fears on both sides of the issue. “The nursing home employers tell us we need to fight to make sure no more nursing home doors close, and the disability community is upset we represent workers in institutions,” he said. “The labor movement needs to understand independent living and consumer control, and the disability movement needs to understand SEIU is trying to raise workers out of poverty. “The fight we have in common is rebalancing the system,” Wilderman continued. “In Pennsylvania, 80 cents of every care dollar is spent in institutions. We’ve committed to no increase in benefits at the cost of decrease in services. It’s a new partnership with the disability community. On July 5th, buses of home care workers will be going to Harrisburg (the state capital) to meet committee heads and legislators to argue for appropriate increased funding of community-based care.“ The disability movement has spent years grappling with issues related to the lack of direct-care workers. Many people with disabilities can’t live in their community without assistance, but there is a staggering lack of reliable workers. Low wages and lack of benefits are often cited as deterrents. To some, unions provide an answer. TRIPIL isn’t the first CIL to affiliate with SEIU 1199. Independence Today Editor Pat Figueroa Jr. was executive director of Center for Independence New York (CIDNY) in 1981 when the union entered the scene and attempted to organize workers. “It was a freight train I did not want to stop,” Figueroa said. “I called them in, and we worked out a 10-point agreement that protected consumer rights. Attendants got holidays and after two years, they got pay raises and sick leave. New York City paid 25% of the cost. At one point the union called a strike. The personal-care attendants went off and marched but would leave the line to provide services.” In many states, direct-care workers are found through the home health agency industry. These workers, too, also receive low pay and few benefits, and critics say they are unreliable. The nursing home industry recruits workers away from community-based jobs partly because minimal benefits and holidays are offered. If unions can negotiate with the state for better wages and benefits, will these workers leave institutions and instead provide direct care for consumers in the community? “Our members are not wedded to brick and mortar,” Wilderman said. “Most would rather provide quality service to one person than be spread too thin in an institution with sixteen people. But they feel trapped because they get health benefits.” The Centers for Medicaid Services (CMS) has funded research into unions and associations for direct-care workers as part of the Money Follows the Person grants. There are direct-care worker associations in several states; some are even sponsored by nursing homes. If nursing homes are sponsoring worker associations and welcoming unions, it is arguably in the disability community’s interest for CILs that employ and facilitate PCAs to jump on the benefits bandwagon. “I think this is the beginning of something in Pennsylvania,” Kleinmann said. *********************************** Janine Bertram Kemp is a writer and longtime disability rights activist . She lives in Oregon |
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