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 Wednesday. 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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