The highly effective healthcare union 1199SEIU formally petitioned to unionize tens of hundreds of residence care staff throughout the state, the newest twist in New York’s controversial quest to streamline an $11 billion state-funded residence care program.
The union stated Tuesday it had gathered sufficient signatures to set off an election to permit 190,000 staff to affix its ranks in what’s by some measures the biggest union drive in the USA this century. Roughly 70,000 staff and counting at Public Partnerships LLC, which administers this system, have signed union authorization playing cards, the union stated.
“These are important staff doing work households can’t reside with out, but they’re struggling to place meals on their very own tables,” Yvonne Armstrong, the president of 1199SEIU, stated in an announcement.
The employees are employed by way of the state’s Shopper-Directed Private Help Program, generally known as CDPAP, which gives Medicaid {dollars} for well being aides chosen by sufferers themselves, usually relations or family members.
Union Competitors
In 2024, Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced a controversial overhaul of this system, severing contracts with greater than 600 residence care companies and placing the whole operation within the fingers of a single entity. The U.S. Division of Justice sued New York over the transition in June, alleging that Hochul improperly favored PPL over different distributors in a “sham” bid course of, allegations that the governor’s workplace denies.
1199SEIU supported the switchover, overtly admitting that it will make it simpler for them to cut price with one single employer as a substitute of a patchwork of lots of; previous to the switchover, 1199SEIU represented simply 10,000 residence well being aides who have been enrolled within the CDPAP program.
A latest investigation by New York Focus revealed that the union had labored behind the scenes to make sure PPL efficiently took over this system over the objections of some caregivers and sufferers. The union and the corporate coordinated lobbying efforts and public messaging on the controversial deal, giving 1199SEIU a leg up over one other union that was in search of to unionize PPL’s workforce, New York Focus reported.
That union, the Dwelling Healthcare Staff of America — which has harbored its personal share of controversies — can be reduce out of PPL’s workforce solely if 1199’s union drive is profitable.
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Throughout a gathering at Native 1199’s headquarters on seventh Avenue with dozens of residence care private assistants, organizing director Lystra Sawney described their efforts as “a scale of organizing that hasn’t been seen since Basic Motors,” an obvious reference to the historic 1940 vote the place 130,000 auto staff voted to unionize.
A spokesperson for the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, which might oversee the PPL election, didn’t instantly reply to questions on whether or not it had acquired the petition or chosen an election date. Federal regulation permits the employer the chance to problem the validity of the signatures in addition to the dimensions and scope of the bargaining unit.
Meg Fitzgerald, a PPL spokesperson, stated the corporate “respects the fitting of each private assistant to determine for themselves whether or not union illustration is true for them” and that it will abide by a neutrality settlement it signed with 1199SEIU.
Reforming a ‘Racket’?
Hochul moved to overtake the CDPAP program in 2024 to rein within the state’s well being prices. On the time, the almost 30 year-old program was operated by some 600 fiscal intermediaries, together with for-profit and non-profit entities, that supplied payroll and administrative oversight. In a now-notorious interview with Bloomberg Information that summer season, Hochul referred to as this system a “racket” and “one of the vital abused packages within the State of New York.”
Well being Division spokesperson Cadence Acquaviva stated in an announcement that the company has “no official place” on 1199’s union push. “We’ll proceed to ship a program that gives high quality look after sufferers, staff, honest pay for staff, and the simplest use of taxpayer {dollars},” she added.
Whereas different states have moved their very own CDPAP packages beneath the administration of 1 single entity, Hochul’s transfer confronted quick backlash from trade advocates, commerce organizations and watchdog teams who criticized the pace of her overhaul — the present staffing companies had mere months to show over their data to PPL — in addition to the phrases of the state’s settlement with PPL.
