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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law two bills Tuesday that clear a path for the state’s home care workers to organize a statewide union of more than 35,000 workers as well as standardize care and training.

Public Act 145 reinstates workers in Michigan’s Home Help Program as state employees. The change enables the workers, who are paid through Medicaid and often care for family members, to form a statewide union. Public Act 144 creates a state authority to oversee standards and training across the workforce.

Michael Ewing, a Grand Rapids home care worker who pushed for the legislation as a member of the worker organization Michigan Home Care Workers United, attended Tuesday’s signing.

“This is like the best feeling,” Ewing said. “It’s been keeping a smile on my face. I’m motivated and focused on the next step and what we got to do to make this a complete thing.”

Ewing, who previously worked for 15 years as a line cook and food factory worker, said he’s excited about the prospect of joining a union so that he can earn a living wage and afford to spend money on his family.

“Individual homecare workers deserve nothing less than the ability to collectively bargain just as workers in all other sectors have,” said state Sen. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores), sponsor of Public Act 144, in a statement following the signing.

Ahead of Whitmer’s signing, the legislation received criticism from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank that pushed for the 2012 reclassification of Home Health workers as private employees.

“This is atrocious public policy and you should reject it,” Patrick Wright, vice president for legal affairs at Mackinac, testified to lawmakers ahead of a House vote on the legislation. He argued that the changes would primarily be “a windfall to the SEIU,” and suggested lawmakers raise wages rather than open the path to unionization. (Disclosure: The Service Employees International Union, to which Michigan Home Care Workers United is affiliated, is a financial supporter of Capital & Main.)

Tuesday’s signing coincided with Vice President Kamala Harris’ announcement of a proposal to cover home-based care under Medicare, the public health insurance for the elderly. By expanding care, Harris’ proposal would likely increase the number of care workers paid with public funds. Federal data suggest that 29% of people over age 65 — the Medicare eligibility threshold — will require home care at some point; today, that would be about 18 million people. By comparison, Medicaid currently covers home care for 4.2 million people nationwide.

History under Snyder

Both acts will take effect in March 2025. Union officials expect to plan a card-check election over the next four months and form a union next year.

Michigan home care workers have been without a union since 2012, when then-Gov. Rick Snyder reclassified the state’s then-42,000 Home Help workers as private employees. The change effectively disbanded the union. In its wake, wages barely budged, and SEIU Healthcare membership in Michigan plummeted by 84%.

Home care workers in Michigan earn, on average, $13.53 an hour — well below the $20.28 living wage for single adults without children residing in the state.

The signing follows a six-month organizing campaign by home care workers and SEIU. Since March, workers have knocked on doors, camped out on the Michigan State Capitol lawn, and urged lawmakers to pass the bills. As Capital & Main previously reported, the change means home care workers could soon file for the state’s largest union election since Whitmer’s repeal of a right-to-work statute took effect in mid-February.

SEIU began organizing home care workers in the early 1980s, and it now represents nearly 800,000 home care workers across 16 states and two Canadian provinces, according to Beth Menz, deputy director of SEIU Healthcare. Tuesday’s signing, Menz said, returns Michigan to a “national movement around care organizing.”

“When the people providing that [home] care make a living wage, have access to training, have access to health insurance, a couple of days off to care for themselves while they’re caring for others, we know that only makes the delivery of care that much better,” said Menz.

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More than 2,700 health care workers at Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan's academic medical center, issued a formal strike notice Friday, saying they're planning a one-day strike on Oct. 15.

“No one wants to go on strike, but sometimes the message must be loud and must be clear," Larry Alcoff, deputy trustee of the Service Employees International Union Health Care Michigan, said in a statement issued Friday evening.

"These workers are demanding equity and parity, but also to restore benefits that they willingly sacrificed during COVID-19. This community would not have made it through this global pandemic without the work of these brave health care workers.”

The union includes respiratory therapists, phlebotomists, patient care technicians, inpatient unit clerks and specialists in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, also known as ECMO, along with clerical staff in clinics and ambulatory care settings.

The group unionized in two stages between July 2023 and March 2024. It is negotiating its first contract, and seeks pay increases for the lowest-paid workers, along with raises for those with experience and longevity. It said it hopes to "set the wage standard for health care workers across Michigan."

“We’re keeping our focus on the goal of a successful contract resolution, and negotiations are ongoing,” Alcoff said.

The University of Michigan Health released a statement late Friday, saying it is "disappointed that the SEIU has announced a strike."

"We remain confident that we can reach an agreement without a work stoppage," the statement said. "We will continue negotiating collaboratively with our valued team members who provide the outstanding care that defines Michigan Medicine. At the same time, we are making preparations that — in the unfortunate event that a strike occurs — will ensure continuity of the safe, high-quality care that our patients receive every day."

More:2,300 University of Michigan Health workers unionize as part of growing labor movement

More:Corewell Health nurses file petition to organize 9,600 at hospitals

Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Subscribe to the Free Press.

LANSING, Mich.—Two bills are headed to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk that, when signed, will restore collective bargaining rights for home healthcare workers in Michigan.

Senate bills 790 and 791 were passed by Michigan legislators on September 25. The bills seek to reestablish more than 30,000 workers’ right to collective bargaining and designates home healthcare workers as public employees.

Members of Michigan Home Care Workers United have campaigned for months in support of the legislation. On Wednesday, more than 300 home healthcare workers went to Lansing to make their case to lawmakers.

“I had to quit my career to become a home care worker for my son,” said Carmen Echevarria, of Lincoln Park. “I went from having a good job making $600 a week… to a job with no benefits, no health insurance, and no time off making $600 a month.”

The passage of the bills is the latest win for workers in Michigan since the March 2023 repeal of the state’s so-called “right-to-work” legislation. Home healthcare workers lost their public employee status in 2012 when right-to-work legislation was enacted under former Gov. Rick Snyder.

Governor Whitmer released a statement Wednesday in which she indicated she will sign Senate bills 790 and 791 into law.

“As demand for home health care workers rises, we need to make sure that the jobs we create in this space are good-paying, family-sustaining jobs,” Gov. Whitmer said. “We must ensure Michiganders doing the hard, often overlooked work of caring for our seniors and people with disabilities have more money in their pockets so they can take care of their own families, too.”

The union is now mobilizing to sign up home healthcare workers to the reestablished bargaining unit. Union card drives and door-to-door organizing is the next stage of this campaign after the significant wins in the Michigan legislature.

“This is what it looks like to rewrite the rules for Unions for All! Nobody left behind,” said Neal Bisno, the executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union. “This is step one of an amazing journey… to build the power they need to improve their lives and to improve the lives of the people they care for.”

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HARRISBURG, Pa., and DETROIT – AFSCME public service workers and other union members in Pennsylvania and Michigan held a “shred day” over the weekend to oppose Donald Trump’s Project 2025, which would weaken public services and take freedoms away from working people.

Members from AFSCME Council 13 in Harrisburg and AFSCME Michigan in Detroit, along with members of other unions that are part of the AFL-CIO, gathered on Saturday to detail how Trump’s plan would crush unions, eliminate overtime protections, repeal the $35 cap on insulin for seniors, end negotiations for lower prescription drug prices, and more.

Project 2025 is a roadmap for Trump’s second term and was cooked up by his allies and advisers. Trump pretends to know nothing about it, but that’s false.

The Washington Post reports that he took a private flight with Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts to a Heritage Foundation conference in 2022 and said in a speech that Heritage “will lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.”

CNN reports that at least 140 former Trump administration officials were involved in creating Project 2025, including six former cabinet secretaries.

Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, wrote the foreword to Roberts’ book, “Dawn’s Early Light.”

“Through our work in PennDOT, we keep roads safe for motorists. We protect them, and our union protects us,” said Ross Thomas, a member of AFSCME Local 3033 (Council 13). “Project 2025 is a dangerous blueprint that aims to dismantle public unions like ours, shred our democratic rights, and destroy our ability to have a voice on the job. If they had their way, our contract and our right to collectively bargain would be eliminated on day one.”

Calvin Johnson, the treasurer for Retired Public Employees of Pennsylvania Chapter 13, spent his career serving the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He said Project 2025 could force retirees like him back to work.

“I always believed that after a career of public service, the promises we’ve relied on — like Medicare and retirement benefits — would be there to support us. Trump’s Project 2025 aims to dismantle Medicare, tear apart our retirement security, and strip away the benefits that have been the backbone of our golden years,” Johnson said.

In Detroit, Lorna Davison, a victim advocate for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and vice president of Local 1659 (AFSCME Michigan 925), said her union may be erased if Trump wins and implements Project 2025.

“As a public service worker, I’m blessed to stand with my co-workers in a strong union. Our contracts bring us stability and peace of mind. And right now, it's all on the chopping block with Trump’s Project 2025,” Davison said. “Project 2025 is a dangerous blueprint that aims to dismantle public unions like ours, shred our democratic rights, and destroy our ability to have a voice on the job.”

The events featured union members ripping signs detailing the threat to fundamental freedoms — such as the freedom to join a union, access affordable health care, and retire with dignity — that we all stand to lose. Following the events, union members canvassed their communities to spread awareness about the threats Project 2025 poses to working people.

FLINT — UAW workers and supportive community members rallied earlier today in Flint at a canvassing kick-off for U.S. Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin. With Michigan at the heart of U.S. manufacturing and the fight for good union jobs, the event promoted the UAW’s endorsement of Slotkin and highlighted the large field program Michigan UAW members are running to elect her as their next senator.

UAW President Shawn Fain, UAW Region 1D Director Steve Dawes, and Rep. Slotkin all delivered remarks at the rally.

The Flint event is part of a broader election effort by the union in Michigan. Across the state, UAW members are canvassing to engage co-workers, retirees, and UAW households. They’re holding conversations that emphasize the importance of supporting candidates who back a pro-worker, anti-corporate greed agenda to secure the future of manufacturing in Michigan and beyond.

“Rep. Slotkin has been a champion for autoworkers and union members in Michigan while her opponent has consistently voted to weaken workers’ rights. We need Rep. Slotkin to be Michigan’s next senator,” said Steve Dawes, UAW Region 1D Director. “We also know that the path to the White House could run through Michigan. Vice President Kamala Harris has walked our picket lines, showing her support not only for labor but for all working-class people.”

In August, UAW launched its most ambitious political program in decades for an all-out effort to elect Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States and to put other pro-worker candidates in office. The Union’s program includes mobilizing UAW members online, at worksites, and in the field with a door-to-door program to reach members, retirees, and their families.

The Union’s one million active and retired members will form a core base of support for the Harris-Walz campaign and will provide a major piece of the campaign’s margin of victory in Michigan. In 2020, the UAW’s membership accounted for 9.2% of Biden-Harris’ votes in Michigan alone.

The UAW’s plan to win stems from the vision that launched 2023’s Stand Up strike and movement. By putting out the facts, uniting the working class, and letting members lead the way, the UAW’s “Stand Up, Speak Up, Show Up” campaign will mobilize workers to defeat the billionaire class at the ballot box.

Photos and videos from the event can be access here.

September 28, 2024