District Council 37, Home Care Employees Local 389, disability advocates and labor allies rallied at City Hall Park on May 20 to urge the New York City Council to reject Intro. 303, legislation that would jeopardize workers’ jobs, benefits, and care for thousands of disabled New Yorkers if passed.
The proposed bill aims to eliminate 24-hour shifts and institute two split shifts of 12 hours in an attempt to protect workers from wage exploitation. The measure, while well-intentioned, would conflict with Medicaid requirements and as written does not provide a funding solution. Home care services in New York City are regulated and paid for by the state. The majority of the 5,000 home care workers represented by DC 37 are women of color, specifically Black workers, who depend on Medicaid-funded shifts to support themselves and their families.
Intro. 303 would also cause a disruption in care for approximately 13,000 severely disabled New Yorkers who rely on home health aides for assistance and their quality of life. Without Medicaid coverage for split 12-hour shifts, some patients could be forced into hospitals or nursing homes, losing the continuity and personal care provided by these workers.
“You don’t know what it’s like to work as a home care worker, to see our clients who need our help for their basic needs— we do this work because we want to help them. A lot of my members work 24-hour shifts and are worried about what losing those shifts will mean for their families and the clients they support. We do not want this bill.” – Margaret Glover, president of Home Care Employees Local 389 and a home care worker for last 46 years.
“We oppose any legislation that will upend the lives of thousands of hardworking caregivers and their families, as well as the clients who rely on this high standard of personal care, without any funding secured to pay for these changes. We have a duty to stand not only with our members in the home care sector to fight this legislation, but also to the communities they serve.” – Henry A. Garrido, executive director of District Council 37.
“Home care workers deserve fair pay, respect on the job, and protection from the exploitation and abuse which we know is unfortunately too common. Home care aides are overwhelmingly women of color, and the Labor Movement has spent decades fighting for stronger conditions and protections in this industry. But you can’t fix a flawed system by implementing new requirements without a sustained funding solution and hoping everything works itself out, and that is exactly what Intro. 303 would do. If we’re going to make major changes to how home care works in this city, it needs to be done with the state involved, appropriate resources, and all stakeholders involved as part of the effort.” – Brendan Griffith, president of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
“Intro. 303 harms both caregivers and care recipients. It ends home care for thousands of very disabled workers and will result in many of them being institutionalized. It lets the insurance companies that have caused this problem off the hook and lets them dump very disabled people into nursing homes to enhance their profits. It cuts the pay of family caregivers in CDPAP while threatening to fine the disabled consumers in the program. Slogans notwithstanding, this is a terrible bill and should be defeated.” – Richard Blum, staff attorney, Employment Law Unit of The Legal Aid Society.
“I want to thank DC 37 for organizing this rally to highlight the severe dangers Intro. 303 poses to New Yorkers with disabilities like myself. Unions, legal services, and disability advocates all recognize that Intro. 303 is a fundamentally flawed bill that must not be brought to a vote. By failing to address service authorizations or provide the necessary funding governed by state and federal Medicaid dollars, this bill will force many disabled and older New Yorkers into nursing homes, effectively imprisoning us for the ‘crime’ of being disabled or requiring assistance.” – José Hernandez, advocacy and policy sssociate for the New York Association on Independent Living.
District Council 37 is New York City’s largest public employee union, with 150,000 members and 89,000 retirees. Visit us at www.dc37.nyc.
