10,000 Maryland Home Child Care and Health Care Providers Win Bargaining Rights

by via Mike Hall, AFL-CIO

Thu, Aug 16, 2007 7:55AM

Thursday, August 16, 2007 : Some 10,000 Maryland home child care providers and home health care workers won bargaining rights earlier this month when Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) signed executive orders granting the workers the right to join unions. Says O'Malley: If workers want to elect a union so their voices can be heard we should not stand in the way of that.

The executive order for home care providers says the workers save the state millions of dollars a year, yet many of those home health aides do not earn a living wage:

Home care services save the state millions of dollars per year, as the average Medicaid expenditure for an individual receiving in-home personal care is well below the average Medicaid expenditure for an individual in a nursing home.
Many providers do not earn a living wage, and are not offered the training and supports they need in order to provide the highest quality services possible. The combination of these factors causes great turnover in the profession, thereby reducing the consistency and stability with which consumers receive services.

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For more information: http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/08/15/10000-ma...

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