A financial win for underpaid home health care union workers did not nearly go far enough, some labor organizers said Monday.
The union 1199SEIU initially issued a celebratory announcement last Monday, saying it secured a victory when an arbitrator decided that 42 home care agencies would have to compensate current and former employees $30 million to make up for underpaying them for 24-hour shifts and other assignments dating back several years. But what 1199 has dubbed a win, grassroots labor organizers said is an insult to New York home care workers, the majority of whom are women of color.
“Despite its branding, the settlement signals a shameful historic low for women and for the labor movement,” the Ain’t I A Woman Campaign, which fights for fair pay for home care workers, said in a statement. The group will be holding a rally in lower Manhattan on Tuesday to condemn the union for supporting the arbitration decision.
The arbitration award covers more than 100,000 workers in all, but only between 5,000 and 7,000 of them have worked on 24-hour shifts, 1199SEIU said. Grassroots labor advocates said those workers are set to get a tiny fraction of what they’re owed, and that the true figure may be as much as $5 billion to $6 billion.
That’s what 1199SEIU itself estimated for its members on 24-hour shifts if they were paid for every hour on the job over the past six years — the statute of limitations for wage-and-hour claims in New York state.
As it stands, home care...
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