The claim that health care reform would harm seniors isn't anything new. In recent months, Republicans have refused to back away from the cynical politics of scaring seniors and claiming reform will make premiums skyrocket for traditional Medicare recipients. A new coalition - Seniors to Seniors -- seeks to provide a clear and concise overview of health reform and what it means for you.

This coalition of senior citizen advocacy organizations (including AARP, Families USA and SEIU) is working to educate seniors about what the current health care reform legislation means for them. The coalition's goal is to help filter through the hype and all the clutter to inform seniors about how health insurance reform will help keep doctors in Medicare, stop physician payment cuts, improve long term care choices, keep Medicare affordable, and close the prescription drug "doughnut hole."

CIR/SEIU Healthcare President Dr. L Toni Lewis, MPO Loretta Johnson and Linda Bock, RN of 1199SEIU Maryland, all appear in the coalition's new video about health reform. Watch here:

The changes Congress is considering would protect Medicare for today's seniors and for future generations, so all Americans can have the health coverage they need when they retire. Learn more at www.seniorstoseniors.org.

More about the House's passage of H.R. 3962, "The Affordable Health Care for America" Act" on Nov. 7th here.

In yesterday's "Fair Pay for Caregivers," the New York Times editorial team urged the Department of Labor to change the regulation within the Fair Labor Standards Act that classifies home care workers as "companions," making them exempt from minimum wage protections and overtime pay. Citing the hard work and critical role they play with an aging boomer population, the NY Times editorial declares that "Home care aides should not have to wait any longer for the fair pay they have been denied for so long."

It's been over two years since the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the 1974 interpretation of the FLSA law ("Long Island Care at Home v. Coke"), denying home care workers a living wage and overtime compensation. That definition of the law essentially put the teenager who occasionally watches your kids on the same level with a worker trained to provide full-time and long term care for seniors and disabled persons with essential care needs. Under a new administration, this ruling did give the Labor Department--not the court--the right to change that interpretation under a new administration. However, more than two years later, the regulation still stands.

Sadly, one of the women who played a leading role in the fight for increased wages and paid overtime for in-home care aides, Mrs. Evelyn Coke, passed away today. Ms. Coke was the plaintiff in the "Long Island Care at Home v. Coke" case challenging the "companionship exemption" for home care workers. Read more about Mrs. Coke in the New York Times article highlighting her struggle for justice and a fair wage.

Support to extend federal overtime and minimum-wage requirements to home care workers--a growing labor force that earns average hourly wages lower than that of all other jobs in healthcare--has been increased in recent months. In June, a group of 15 Senators led by Senator Harkins (D-IA) sent a letter to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis advocating for the Department of Labor to expand federal wage and hour laws to the estimated 1.5 million home care workers in the U.S.

"In the three decades since the exemption was created, the numbers of home care workers and their responsibilities have expanded dramatically as the population has aged and more and more people are choosing long-term care services in their homes rather than in institution," reads the letter sent to the DOL.

Secretary Solis responded with a statement saying she shares the concerns of the Senators who are advocating for fair treatment of home care workers, telling an AP reporter that her department was looking into whether the exemption should be overturned. Since that time, no real steps have been taken towards the federal reform that is urgently needed to provide home care workers with the compensation and respect they deserve. Please ask Department of Labor Secretary Solis to include home care workers in the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act

The votes were counted last week in an important union election among 10,000 home care workers in Fresno County, California. Now that the dust is settled, here is more detail about what the Fresno home care election victory signifies--and what it means going forward.

After numerous songs, slogans, speeches and a march across Portland's Hawthorne Bridge, the message came down to a simple chant rising from Terry D. Schrunk Plaza and echoing off the Portland skyscrapers around it: "What do we want? Fairness! When do we want it? Now!" With that, about 2,500 SEIU Local 503 members and allies concluded the United for Oregon rally against state budget cuts and layoffs last Sunday.

The event drove home the need to shield front-line workers and those they serve -- children, seniors, and families made vulnerable by the economic downturn -- from absorbing an unfair share of proposed state budget cuts. A proposed budget from the Oregon Legislature calls for as many as 1,700 state worker layoffs, and unions have been asked to accept a wage freeze and as many as 24 unpaid furlough days during the next two years.

A group of 15 Senators led by Senator Harkins (D-IA) have sent a letter to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, urging the Department of Labor to expand federal wage and hour laws to an estimated 1.5 million home care workers in the U.S., one of the fastest-growing professions in the country today.

In-home care providers belong to a growing labor force that earns average hourly wages lower than that of all other jobs in healthcare. These front-line caregivers also lack employment security, healthcare benefits, or even workers' compensation.

When the Department of Labor (DOL) amended the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1974 to cover domestic workers, it was to address concerns that wage and overtime protections would be extendeded to "companionship services" provided by teenagers, family members or friends on an occasional or informal basis [example: babysitters].

In reality, the FLSA has been anything but fair when it comes to home care workers. In the summer of 2007, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the 1974 interpretation of the FLSA law ("Long Island Care at Home v. Coke"), which excludes home care workers. The Court's decision to deny home care workers a living wage and overtime compensation by upholding the "companionship exemption" essentially put the teenager who occasionally watches your kids on the same level with a worker trained to provide full-time and long-term care for seniors and disabled persons with essential care needs.

However, this 2007 court ruling also gives the agency -- under a new administration -- the right to change that interpretation. "[...] A professional caretaker is simply not the type of informal and casual relationship that Congress sought to exempt," reads the letter to the DOL.

"In the three decades since the exemption was created, the numbers of home care workers and their responsibilities have expanded dramatically as the population has aged and more and more people are choosing long-term care services in their homes rather than in institutions. Home care, increasingly, has become not casual work performed by a friend or family member but a full-time regular type of employment.

"It is critical that these professional workers, who provide essential services to our nation's elderly and disabled, have the same right to minimum wage and overtime pay as enjoyed by other workers."

SEIU, as part of a coalition that aims to shave $2 million in healthcare spending by implementing changes to care delivery in the long term care field, sent a letter to the Obama administration last week recommending cost savings by expanding home- and community-based services. Secretary Solis said on Friday that she shares the concerns of the Senators who are advocating for fair treatment of home care workers. "As secretary of labor, I intend to fulfill the department's mandate to protect America's workers, including home health care aides, who work demanding work schedules and receive low wages," Solis said.

Governor Schwarzenegger gave a speech to the joint session of California legislatures this morning on the state's budget, pressing lawmakers to resolve the state's financial crisis and enact $24 billion in spending cuts. The Governor acknowledged how devastating these cuts will be to millions of Californians, saying "People come up to me all the time, pleading 'governor, please don't cut my program,'" he said. "They tell me how the cuts will affect them and their loved ones. I see the pain in their eyes and hear the fear in their voice. It's an awful feeling. But we have no choice."

To solve the state's fiscal problems, the Schwarzenegger administration wants to slash the wages of people who do some of the most difficult work and help our most vulnerable citizens stay out of institutions. SEIU International Executive VP Eliseo Medina issued a statement in response to the Governor's speech today, explaining why we think his "no choice" budget cuts that punish California's neediest residents are unacceptable:

"Governor Schwarzenegger's proposed cuts to home care would add up to 340,000 people to the ranks of the unemployed, moving California's unemployment rate to 12.8 percent--nearly tied with Michigan for the highest in the nation. This is exactly the opposite of what California needs.

"These irresponsible cuts will cost the state over a billion dollars a year in lost federal funds, and untold billions over the long term, as they push California's most vulnerable residents into expensive facilities.

"Worse still is the human toll. Approximately 395,000 elderly or disabled Californians would lose the services they need to live at home.

"We need shared responsibility to dig us out of this hole. Instead, this Governor has chosen a skewed approach--giving away $2.5 billion a year to large corporations and at the same time eliminating desperately needed care for the most vulnerable Californians.

"SEIU intends to fight the Governor's callous and immoral budget proposals and advance real solutions that enhance state and federal revenue and reduce the amount that must be cut from home care and other vital services Californians need."

During his speech to the joint session of California legislatures this morning, Gov. Schwarzenegger also expressed how he thinks the state should view their monstrous financial crisis: as an opportunity to "make big and lasting change." Schwarzenegger urged lawmakers and other constitutional officers "not [to] think just in the short-term," saying "Let's think about the long term..."

Finally, Gov. Schwarzenegger says something we can agree with! "Governor Schwarzenegger offered the public a bad budget deal, and the public said no," said SEIU's Medina. "Now the Governor wants to punish the people of California with senseless cuts that will cost the state billions down the road. It's this kind of failed leadership that has gotten us into this mess; more of the same short-sighted vision will not get us out."

Please send a message to the Governor telling him his short-sighted policies will send California deeper into fiscal abyss--and then ask your friends and co-workers to do the same.

See the full list of proposed cuts by the Governor here. More background on SEIU's fight to stop California home care cuts can be found here, here and here.

If you want quality care, make home care work a quality job

Last week, home care workers in Ontario voted in favor of joining SEIU. In a vote held by the Ontario Labour Relations Board, personal support workers employed by the Victorian Order of Nurses in Brampton and Mississauga voted 83 percent in favor of joining SEIU Local 1 Canada. This past Monday, more good news raising the quality of life for home care aides broke, as 780 home care workers from Addus Healthcare became the first long term care workers to join SEIU Local 1107. They are the latest workers, along with those joining Local 1 Canada, to join SEIU in their growing campaign to raise standards and improve the quality of home care across North America.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one of the fastest growing areas in health care is home health aides. But dedicated home care providers are frustrated by a system that often does not pay a living wage or offer health benefits. In 2008, a full-time home health aide made an average of $14,000. Thirty-six percent of home health aides in this country are uninsured and forty-five percent live below the federal poverty level income.

In 2007 alone, more than 29,000 workers were fired or disciplined for union activity. Trisha Miechur, a Certified Nurse Assistant at a ManorCare nursing home in Easton, PA, is one of those workers.

Fed up with the short staffing and high turnover that was affecting the level of patient care in the nursing home, Trish started talking to her coworkers about forming a union. "I thought that if we were united, we would finally have a voice in the decisions that affected us and our residents," writes Miehchur in an op-ed for The Morning Call. "You would think that in America, workers are free to decide for themselves about forming a union; but I can tell you, it's anything but a free choice."

The truth is that companies routinely fire or threaten employees who sign cards calling for union elections. Corporations almost always choose delay tactics that force workers to go through elections that can take months, sometimes years and in 40 percent of cases where an election has been requested, the election isn't even held because of interference from the employer.

Trisha describes the illegal interrogation, threats, and retaliation she suffered at the hands of her ManorCare employers in their attempts to stifle union activity:

While we were trying to form our union, we were repeatedly taken away from our residents to go to meetings with management. ....At one point I was given a final written warning because management accused me of asking residents and family members to sign letters to state legislators about the quality of care at our nursing home. The warning said I was being disloyal and that if my behavior continued, I would be ''subject to termination."

After that, I was scared whenever I walked into work. But I also knew that I was right to stand up for myself and my residents.

In the summer of 2007, Trisha and her coworkers--like other Carlyle-ManorCare workers nationwide--had been struggling to form a union for more than a year. After filing Federal charges against Carlyle-ManorCare, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled nine months later that Manor Care violated the law for threatening Trisha and writing her up. Problem solved, right? Wrong.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann gave the Motion Picture Television Fund's president and chief executive David Tillman the title of the "World's Worse" person last night, for closing the retirement home for film-industry employees for no good reason.

Three hundred SEIU UHW members provide care at the acute care hospital and nursing home facilities under threat of closure, which would cause the eviction of over 120 of its oldest, weakest, most needy and disabled residents by the end of the year. So much for the Motion Picture and Television Fund's promise of "unwavering commitment" to the entertainment industry.

MPTF says this is necessary because the long term care facilities in question have run $10 million operating deficits for the past four years. However, public records show a profit margin of approximately 12% for 2006-7 with a 9.5% increase in net assets in 2007 alone. "Everybody would be farmed out to various nursing homes because the Fund says it's losing $10 million dollars a year and is rapidly running out of money," commented show host Keith Olbermann. "Except that it's latest financial statements from last November indicated no losses... the fund wants to instead open a condo-like development," he continued.

As usual, Olbermann gives a great summary of the issue and what is at stake. Watch here:

SEIU members have protested the possible closures, holding a vigil last Wednesday with more than 150 UHW members, resident family members, actors and clergy from the Motion Picture and Television Fund long term care facility in attendance.

"The fight to keep this residence open and preserve these jobs is a fight for morality over greed and for compassion over cruelty," Melanie Wilson told the crowd, underscoring a moving report on ongoing negotiations by worker Myra Torres. Melanie is the daughter of Charmin's "Mr. Whipple" ad fame, who called the facility home for years.

Watch the NBC Los Angeles report on the protest.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann gave the Motion Picture Television Fund's president and chief executive David Tillman the title of the "World's Worse" person last night, for closing the retirement home for film-industry employees for no good reason.

Three hundred SEIU UHW members provide care at the acute care hospital and nursing home facilities under threat of closure, which would cause the eviction of over 120 of its oldest, weakest, most needy and disabled residents by the end of the year. So much for the Motion Picture and Television Fund's promise of "unwavering commitment" to the entertainment industry.

MPTF says this is necessary because the long term care facilities in question have run $10 million operating deficits for the past four years. However, public records show a profit margin of approximately 12% for 2006-7 with a 9.5% increase in net assets in 2007 alone. "Everybody would be farmed out to various nursing homes because the Fund says it's losing $10 million dollars a year and is rapidly running out of money," commented show host Keith Olbermann. "Except that it's latest financial statements from last November indicated no losses... the fund wants to instead open a condo-like development," he continued.

As usual, Olbermann gives a great summary of the issue and what is at stake. Watch here:

SEIU members have protested the possible closures, holding a vigil last Wednesday with more than 150 UHW members, resident family members, actors and clergy from the Motion Picture and Television Fund long term care facility in attendance.

"The fight to keep this residence open and preserve these jobs is a fight for morality over greed and for compassion over cruelty," Melanie Wilson told the crowd, underscoring a moving report on ongoing negotiations by worker Myra Torres. Melanie is the daughter of Charmin's "Mr. Whipple" ad fame, who called the facility home for years.

Watch the NBC Los Angeles report on the protest.

Although the economy is shedding jobs across industries (the U.S. had more than 71,000 layoffs in the U.S. on Monday and Tuesday alone), it should be a sign of encouragement that the health care sector continues to be the one sector growing.

Informed by SEIU research and experience, a New York Times editorial this morning unfortunately reveals that one of the fastest-growing areas within the health care field - home care for the elderly - is also one of the lowest paid and most exploitable. "Efforts to unionize home care workers in some states also has led to wage gains and better conditions. But the progress is incomplete without a federal law to recognize and protect the home care work force," states the editorial.

Read the editorial here.

"We have a new U.S. President who openly promotes unions and a nation poised for change. Will the labor movement be ready to seize the moment? We must be. In my own union, SEIU, the largest union in California and the fastest growing union in the country, we constantly debate the best way to protect our current union members, while at the same time bringing union representation to the millions of workers who do not have the benefit of union representation." Read the full piece.

Eliseo Medina is an executive vice president of SEIU, where he is leading SEIU's efforts to organize workers in 17 states.

There was much excitement today over Obama's nomination of Tom Daschle as Secretary of Health and Human Services and Director of the White House Office on Health Reform (as there should have been), but it overshadowed another very encouraging appointment -- Dr. Jeanne Lambrew as Deputy Director of the White House Office on Health Reform.

Dr. Lambrew's career is defined by her tireless fight for better health care for every American. From her central role in crafting the Children's Health Insurance Program to her advocacy of affordable care for the elderly, Dr. Lambrew's efforts have led to improvements in access to care and deepened the public's understanding of how serious our health care crisis really is.

Today, a new contract was finalized for 25,000 Massachusetts personal care attendants (PCAs) who will get a 15 percent pay raise, health insurance and paid sick time.

Massachusetts home care workers voted by more than 98.5 percent to approve the first-ever labor contract for PCAs, which will increase their wages from $10.84 to $12.48 an hour over three years, provide paid time-off benefits based upon hours worked, and implement healthcare benefits for all workers in the second year of the contract. This contract victory comes a year after approximately 25,000 PCAs caring for seniors and people with disabilities across the state voted to join 1199SEIU in the largest single unit election ever in New England.

"It's the beginning of a real win-win situation, for the care-givers, the state and people like myself," Liz Casey told the Boston Herald today, a longtime multiple sclerosis sufferer from Roslindale. Casey is one of an estimated 20,000 Massachusetts residents who benefit from personal care attendants' services, which allow seniors and people with disabilities to receive care in their own homes instead of nursing homes or other institutions.

The three-year PCA contract will assure not only improved economic conditions for thousands of workers, but also help to stabilize a home care program plagued by turnover rates of 40 to 60 percent in recent years, due to the low wages and lack of benefits.

The victory also adds further resources and strength to the growing movement of non-union workers in Boston area hospitals who are currently organizing to join 1199SEIU.

"Vote by vote, voice by voice, we are reshaping the long term care industry to better serve our seniors, people with disabilities, and the hard workers who deliver these essential services," said Queenie Turner, an SEIU member and home care worker in Worcester, Mass.

Read more about the campaign and SEIU personal care attendants at www.PCAVoice.org.

Sudbury area home caregivers employed by Comcare Health Services voted overwhelmingly on November 10 to form a union, becoming members of SEIU Local 1 Canada. The move comes in response to years of not being adequately compensated for their work.

The home care workers said they had to take action to protect themselves and their jobs. Home caregiver Nathalie Julien, whose daughter Maggie receives home care said, "We were tired of being treated badly. It feels really good to have the support of everyone."

Nearly 295,000 Ontarians access home care services, allowing seniors and citizens with disabilities to remain in the comfort of their own homes instead of being admitted to hospitals and nursing homes. As a result, home care takes pressure off Ontario's health care system and ultimately saves the public valuable health dollars.

SEIU represents more than 6,000 home care workers in Ontario and 500,000 home care workers in North America.

Home care workers in Missouri are celebrating a victory that gives them a new voice about their future.

Missouri personal care attendants joined with people with disabilities, senior citizens, and home care advocates to win approval of a ballot initiative that establishes a Quality Home Care Council that will strengthen the home care system in Missouri and also give attendants the freedom to form a union.

The measure passed overwhelmingly on November 4, with support from 75 percent of voters.

"I'm thrilled. This is fantastic news for Missourians who need long term care and for caregivers like me," said St. Louis home care attendant Tasha McGhee. "The next step is to work together to improve our jobs and the services we provide."

Home care workers in Missouri are not yet united in a union. But they got important support starting during their campaign to collect signatures to put the initiative on the ballot from workers who are members of SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana, SEIU 6434, SEIU 775, SEIU Healthcare Michigan, and SEIU Local 2000.

Seventy-five percent of Missouri voters voted "yes" on Proposition B this November 4th, a major victory in the effort to ensure quality home care services for Missouri's growing senior population and its citizens with disabilities.

With the number of elderly Missourians expected to rise more than 70 percent in the next twenty years, the demand for in-home services will skyrocket--at a time that the pool of potential home care workers is expected to be decreasing.

More than 8,000 home care workers provide the assistance that allows thousands of Missourians with disabilities and seniors to live at home instead of more costly institutions. The passage of Proposition B will establish a consumer-led Quality Home Care Council to ensure a stable workforce of reliable home caregivers is in place to meet the demand and ensure older Missourians can remain in the setting they prefer, their homes.

Proposition B will also make life easier for those who need home health care by:

* Helping workers and those who need them find each other through a statewide workforce directory
* Providing a backup system when an attendant is needed in an emergency
* Ensuring a better qualify of life for workers who now earn an average of $8.93 an hour with no benefits

Read about MO residents who will benefit from the passage of Proposition B here and here.

For more information, visit www.moqualityhomecare.org.

Nearly 5,000 members of SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana employed by Help At Home (HAH) will vote on a historic new contract that paves the way for thousands more Help At Home workers across the country to join the union. Members will be voting by mail ballot to ratify the contract over the next few weeks.

"We won this agreement because homecare workers stood together and wouldn't accept anything less than a contract guaranteeing wage increases, health care and a stronger voice for homecare workers across the country," said bargaining committee member Alberta Walker. "This agreement shows the power of workers who are united to win a fair and just contract for the quality service we deliver to our consumers."

The groundbreaking agreement marks the second homecare contract in our union's history that provides workers the right to organize nationally. The first such agreement was reached with Addus HealthCare, Inc. in 2005.

The agreement also includes health insurance for thousands of workers; a significant per hour raise for homecare aides and CNAs, and payment for travel time and expenses.
"This contract represents progress for hard working homecare providers who are the backbone in the delivery of service to some of the most vulnerable citizens of our country - seniors and people with disabilities. I take my hat off to our members," said SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana President Keith Kelleher.

At the 2008 SEIU Convention held in June, SEIU members from all corners of the United States and Canada came together and passed a bold plan for change centered on the theme of "Justice for All". Many of the resolutions included in the Justice for All platform call for equal rights for people with disabilities.

Here are excerpts from a few of the resolutions:

Let it be resolved that SEIU will actively support federal and state initiatives to re-balance our nation's long-term care system to reallocate resources toward home and community based services, particularly consumer-directed care.

Let it be resolved that SEIU will take an ongoing leadership role to contribute to policy change that removes artificial barriers to the employment of persons with disabilities and emphasize the abilities and innovations of people with disabilities who engage in any paid work.

SEIU will work in partnership with other groups to develop initiatives and policies that support employment of persons with disabilities in good union jobs with access to benefits.

SEIU will work with employers to create more flexible job descriptions and work rules that facilitate the employment of persons with disabilities. SEIU will create and share contract language that facilitates the employment of persons with disabilities.

SEIU, through its publications, websites and other communications with staff, members, employers and policy partners, will address cultural barriers and misinformation that limit the acceptance of persons with disabilities in the workforce.

SEIU has a strong track record of supporting the rights of people with disabilities. Our union supports the Community Choice Act (S. 799 & H.R. 1621) currently in the US Senate and House, and supported it's predecessor - MiCASSA. We are also the only national union to have endorsed the Community Imperative which supports the right to community living for people with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities.

To find out more about SEIU's support for the rights of people with disabilities, read Dennis Rivera's letter to disability rights advocates.