Home health assistants vote to join union

Interesting move to organize...this is a growing occupation in health care with more families and individuals relying on health assistants to help out when jobs and just the stress of living today makes it almost impossible for family members to handle...and continue to work..plus home care assistants are trained and may have some additional awareness that the average family member may not...BD

Thousands of home health assistants in Massachusetts overwhelmingly voted to join the powerful Service Employees International Union, giving the union strong momentum as it moves toward its larger goal of attempting to organize about 55,000 workers at Boston's teaching hospitals. more stories like this * Union looks to enlist healthcare workers * Today's Globe: Carney meeting, city council and SEIU, nasal flu vaccine, CDC editing * Demolition of Boston's image * Affleck supports unionizing hospitals * Affleck pushes for unionization of hospital workers * The vote comes at a time when union membership nationwide continues a decadeslong decline. SEIU has been able to buck that trend, partly by emphasizing ways to improve workers' career development, not just immediate improvements in wages and benefits, said Thomas A. Kochan, professor of management at the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Home health assistants are hired by individual patients or family members, and provide such services as bathing, feeding, and cooking. They are paid directly by the state's Medicaid program, Mass Health.

Home health assistants vote to join union - The Boston Globe