Minn. home health care workers vote to unionize

Aug 28 2014

The Service Employees International Union will represent about 27,000 home health care workers -- many of whom care for relatives -- who are paid through Medicaid.

The Wall Street Journal: Minnesota Home-Care Workers Say Yes To Union
The Service Employees International Union scored a victory Tuesday as home health care workers in Minnesota voted to be represented by the labor group, even as it faces a legal challenge from opponents who say the 27,000 workers involved shouldn't be forced to join a union. The SEIU is slated to represent Minnesota home health-care workers who are paid through Medicaid. Many of them care for their own relatives (Maher, 8/26).

Pioneer Press: Minnesota Home Care Workers Approve Union
Thousands of Minnesota home care workers have voted to create their own union, the state said Tuesday after counting results. The union will represent about 27,000 workers who are paid by the state to care for disabled or elderly patients (Snowbeck, 8/26).

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: In Historic Vote, Minnesota Home Health Care Workers Unionize
In one of Minnesota's largest labor organizing efforts since the Depression, home care workers across the state on Tuesday voted to join the Service Employees International Union, giving that organization the power to bargain on their behalf. The vote is the culmination of one of the most sweeping union expansion efforts in Minnesota history and represents a victory for Gov. Mark Dayton and the DFL-controlled Legislature, who pushed through legislation that enabled the certification vote (Simons, 8/27).

Minnesota Public Radio: Minnesota Personal Care Aides Back Statewide Union
Government-subsidized personal care assistants -- people who work with the elderly and disabled in their homes -- have voted to form a union. Labor organizers billed it as the largest union vote in Minnesota history, though only 22 percent of the nearly 27,000 eligible home health workers mailed in their ballots this month, according to data released Tuesday by the state Bureau of Mediation Services (Pugmire, 8/26).