------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 24, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
HOME HEALTH CARE WORKERS: "THE NEW FACE OF LABOR" [Following are excerpts from a talk given by health-care worker Toni Arenstein at a June 11 Workers World Party meeting in New York City.] This past week has been one of tremendous labor struggles of our class in New York City. The main issue has been the need for a living wage. They have involved the home health aides. These workers are some of the most oppressed, low-paid workers in the city and they are mostly women of color and many immigrants. These workers are making $6 to $7 an hour, often after working 10-12 years. Medicaid and Medicare pay $18 per hour for home health aide services, and the big executives in the agencies earn triple-digit salaries. I heard one of the home health aides interviewed. She said she has multiple sclerosis herself and yet she takes care of other people. She has been working 10 years and makes$7 an hour--and has no health benefits or sick time. And she makes too much money to be eligible for Medicaid. So here these workers are caring for the sick and elderly and they have no medical benefits. What an outrage. I was a visiting nurse in New York City for 10 years and I can say without a doubt that it is the home health aides who keep the patients alive. They cook, feed, bathe, clothe, do the shopping, purchase the prescriptions, remind to take medications, change diapers, use complicated equipment, help people to be able to walk again, or push the wheelchairs so they can get out of the house. This is truly life-sustaining. Without the work they do, people would be placed in nursing homes or die. Many of the home health aides are not able to afford housing because it is impossible to find an apartment when earning $12,000-$14,000 per year. Some are forced to live in shelters. They also travel long distances and often have to go from home to home to provide care for different patients. The strike ended June 9 with 1199 Service Employees reaching settlements with five home-care agencies employing 12,000 home health aides. Union leaders said little progress had been made in negotiations with seven other agencies employing about 10,000 workers. What is really significant about the home health aides is that this struggle is really the result of new organizing in the last 10 years. When I was a visiting nurse in the 1980s and early 1990s, 1199 was attempting to organize home health aides but it was very difficult. Very few were organized at that time. Part of the problem was that home health aides didn't work in one place, so it was very difficult to get to them to sign cards or to invite them to meetings. When the 74,000 home health aides were finally organized by the Service Employees in Los Angeles in 1999, it was reported that the union organizers had to overcome many practical and political obstacles to achieve this victory. They had to stand at many bus stops all over Los Angeles so they could reach the workers. To know this history and to see them out so strong and defiant was really an inspiration and so encouraging about the struggles to come. The party is very excited about these developments because these are the workers of the struggles to come. They are like the grocery workers in the California strike. They will usher in a whole new era of struggle. It's interesting that the strikes by the home health aides and the day- care workers came at the same time. It's ines ca pable: They are the new face of the working class in New York City. They are largely women, oppressed, many are immigrants. There is a rising level of anger among low-paid workers. They are saying, "We won't take it anymore." It signifies that this growing sector of the working class is saying, "We are angry and if you don't deal with us we are not going to go away." In his landmark 1986 book "High Tech, Low Pay," Workers World Party founder Sam Marcy wrote that as capitalism ravages the living standards of an increasingly multinational working class, "it lays the objective basis for the politicization of the workers, for moving in a more leftward direction and for organization on a broad scale." Pointing to a recent New York hospital workers' strike, he wrote, "That the hospital strikers are more politically conscious and a more militant element of the working class can easily be verified by even a chance acquaintance with them." These are very important struggles of our class and we look forward to more of these struggles and the possibility for the party to intervene. We must make every attempt possible to demonstrate solidarity and support and to make sure that every worker who wants one goes home with a Workers World newspaper. Onward to Workers World Party's continued participation and intervention in the workers' struggle. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
