Unions are the future

Every day, I’m proud to be part of a union with a long history of fighting for civil rights and economic equality.

Every day – and especially on Labor Day – I’m proud to be part of a union with a long history of fighting for civil rights and economic equality. I’m also proud that while we are strengthened by our history, we don’t rest on it. We continue to fight for working people every day. We know that to build a better future for our communities, we need strong unions. And those unions need to represent the new cornerstone of the American economy: healthcare workers.

Anabela Fonseca-Gomes is fighting to build a better future for her family. She’s a home care worker from Waterbury, Connecticut, caring for a client who can no longer care for herself, helping her to live at home with independence and dignity. But at the end of the workweek, Anabela often has to decide between buying groceries and paying her bills. Anabela works a second job in a factory to try to make ends meet.

Home care is one of the fastest-growing job in the country, as 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 every day. But home care workers are often paid too little to support their own families while caring for others’ and their average wages – just $13,300 a year – have actually declined over the last decade. Half of home care workers depend on public assistance. The home care workforce is 90 percent women and more than half women of color. Together with nursing home workers, these caregivers face on-thejob injury rates similar to corrections officers, firefighters, and construction workers. Home care and nursing home workers need strong unions.

Here in Connecticut, home care workers won their union in 2012 and have bargained for higher wages and a paid-time off fund. Now, Anabela and thousands of dedicated caregivers have ratified a contract with a $15 an hour starting wage and workers’ compensation. Together in our union, home care workers are no longer isolated in their clients’ homes – they’re working together to make long term care in our state better for everyone.

Nursing home workers united in our union recently won wage increases, too. For some of the lowest-paid staff, housekeepers and dietary workers who keep nursing homes clean and residents fed, this means a $3 an hour raise. Alongside fair wages, these caregivers won a training fund and a pension and welfare fund. Our union is fighting so that the people who care for our aging loved ones are able to deliver quality care and to plan for their own golden years.

Too many people think unions are a thing of the past. They forget that a 40-hour workweek, weekends and eight-hour workdays are hard-won victories, not gifts. And they forget that income inequality wasn’t always this bad. When workers have a union, they have a voice.

But workers in Connecticut are up against a legislature that wants to silence their voice by denying them the right to collective bargaining. As unions have shrunk, under attack from corporate special interests and selfserving politicians, the voice of American workers has shrunk, along with paychecks and benefits and retirement options. Low wages, no sick days, erratic schedules – this is what happens when workers don’t have a strong union.

Unions have never been more important to getting the American economy back on track and making sure that hardworking women and men can provide for their families. When workers come together in unions, they can win fair wages, healthcare coverage, a path to retirement, and a voice in the economy and politics.

Anabela – and thousands of home care and nursing home workers in Connecticut – are ready to make history with our union as we fight for a better future together.