Oregon: SEIU Expands Union Ranks to Family Care
Click to read AWF's opposition to this measure
According to the Statesman Journal:
A little more than a year ago, Linda Etherton accepted a new job caring for her ailing mother-in-law in Etherton's Aumsville home.
Etherton works at least eight hours every day and is on call around the clock. In September, she drove her mother-in-law to Portland nine times for doctor's appointments.
Under Oregon's relative adult foster-care program, 71-year-old Sylvia Etherton gets to remain in a home setting with care provided by loved ones. The state and the federal Medicaid program save a bundle of money by keeping Sylvia out of a costly nursing home.
Linda Etherton gets paid $740 per month.
"Most people in society don't consider it a job," she said. "They have no idea."
But changes are on the way.
Service Employees International Union Local 503 recently scored another in a string of union-organizing victories when it convinced a majority of the state's 1,628 relative adult foster-care providers to sign union-authorization cards. That, combined with a new executive order by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, enables SEIU to commence bargaining a union contract on behalf of the care providers, said Danica Finley, SEIU Local 503 organizing director...click to continue.
