In October, Michigan residence care employees shaped a statewide union of 32,000. Consultants say it’s a template for shielding rights in 2026.
By Ethan Bakuli for Capital & Major
When Ravina Turner, 53, began working for Michigan’s House Assist Program round 2015, she was simply grateful to receives a commission. For years, she’d missed work to look after her daughter, Davina, who has Crohn’s illness and colitis.
At first, the House Assist Program, run by the state’s Division of Well being and Human Providers, paid her about $300 a month for her work, permitting her to cut back her hours as a nursing assistant. By final 12 months, she had develop into a full-time caregiver for Davina, and her wages had risen to $15.88 an hour. That’s nonetheless nicely under the $35.59 per hour residing wage for a single dad or mum in Dearborn Heights, outdoors Detroit, based on the MIT Dwelling Wage Calculator.
“This is a job and we deserve benefits,” mentioned Turner, who’s picked up a gig as a private care assistant at a close-by assisted residing facility. “We deserve health insurance as well as life insurance. We deserve vacation … because if I was punching a clock, I would get all those perks.”
Turner thought she simply needed to endure low wages, no advantages and no paid break day, she mentioned, till a canvasser knocked on her door and talked to her about how a lot much less Michigan residence well being aides made in comparison with aides in states equivalent to Washington, the place in 2023 beginning charges have been set at $21 per hour. She steered Turner be part of the Michigan House Care Employees United marketing campaign, an effort from the Service Staff Worldwide Union to get union recognition for residence care employees paid by way of Medicaid. Turner determined to affix. (Disclosure: SEIU is a monetary supporter of Capital & Major.)
Ravina Turner at her residence in Dearborn Heights.
This October, Turner was amongst 32,000 Michigan residence care aides who grew to become union members after 73% of voting residence care employees voted to affix the union. They’re at present working in the direction of negotiating a contract with the state. And their victory, say observers, achieved one thing politicians more and more want to drag off: constructing coalitions throughout political divides by chatting with materials considerations.
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Michigan House Care Employees United launched in March 2024, across the time that the canvasser got here to Turner’s door. Their efforts have been aimed, initially, at getting care employees the appropriate to type a union — which was profitable, with Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signing a invoice granting House Assist employees state worker standing for the needs of collective bargaining final October.
Then they turned to the tough work of organizing a union vote throughout the state. At present, no less than 11 different states, most of them Democratic strongholds like California and New York, have legal guidelines that acknowledge residence care employees as public staff for the needs of forming a union. The Michigan residence care employee election was the primary underneath President Donald Trump’s second administration. It was additionally solely the second success in a state that went twice for Trump.
Kevin Reuning, a political science professor at Miami College of Ohio who tracks nationwide union elections, mentioned the Michigan residence care employee win was a “rare” victory given the feat of employees at that scale.
“It is statewide … that poses such an incredible difficulty because you don’t have all your workers in a single location. It just makes the actual organizing hard,” mentioned Reuning, who can be the creator of UnionElections.org.
As activists started to speak with care employees throughout the state, calls for emerged: greater wages and advantages, entry to coaching, and a registry to attach employees with shoppers in want of care.
“Hundreds of home care workers have had boots on the ground for a very long time,” mentioned Gabriella Jones-Casey, govt vp of residence care and workers improvement for SEIU Healthcare Michigan.
Turner decorates her residence for Christmas in anticipation of her daughter’s return from the hospital. “I’m preparing for her to come home. It’ll be a cheerful holiday setting.”
House care employees are predominantly feminine, older and racially various, and so they have lengthy skilled stagnant wages, no advantages and restricted entry to coaching. On the federal stage, employees are embattled; in July, the Trump administration issued a proposal rolling again federal minimal wage and extra time protections for residence care employees.
House care employees are predominantly feminine, older and racially various, and so they have lengthy skilled stagnant wages, no advantages and restricted entry to coaching. On the federal stage, employees are embattled; in July, the Trump administration issued a proposal rolling again federal minimal wage and extra time protections for residence care employees.
“This is a serious rollback, and it’s going to exacerbate shortages,” mentioned Catherine Ruckelshaus, authorized director on the Nationwide Employment Legislation Challenge. “It’s pretty much a disaster.” Domestically, residence care employees are going through cuts to Medicaid, which funds Michigan’s House Assist Program.
The quickly rising occupation already battles important points with retention. Though long-term residence well being care is anticipated to develop by 17% over the following decade, charges of turnover have been almost 75% nationally in 2024.
When the election outcomes got here in, these have been the problems on employees’ minds — wherever they have been. That included Michigan’s cities and suburbs, the place many of the state’s Black and brown employees reside and the place voters lean Democratic, in addition to its rural areas, that are typically white and voters are closely Republican.
The organizers’ success got here from the unit’s capacity to talk to broad considerations about wages, working circumstances, and respect, mentioned Jones-Casey.
“We represent workers all across the state from the UP [Upper Peninsula] down,” mentioned Jones-Casey. “The challenges that arise might be different across the urban areas versus the rural versus suburban, but that’s kind of the beauty of this unit. They are representative of the entirety of Michigan.”
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Employees say there’s energy find frequent floor between disparate locations and political landscapes.
Erika LaFountain, a house care employee concerned with the union, lives in Jackson County, a conservative stronghold about an hour west of Detroit. It’s 82% white, and Trump gained it by greater than a 20-point margin in 2024. It’s simply the form of place SEIU wanted to win over.
House care employee Erika LaFountain helps Ricky Johnson into his wheelchair throughout a go to to the native shopping center.
LaFountain mentioned she’d by no means considered herself as an activist. When a canvasser got here to her door, she mentioned, “I’m like, I don’t think that’s me,” mentioned LaFountain. “I think you’re talking about nurses and, like, people with degrees.”
LaFountain began in residence well being care after she helped a wheelchair-bound neighbor, Ricky Johnson, get into his residence with out a ramp. At first, LaFountain cared for Johnson in her free time, unpaid. When his household mentioned they wanted extra assist, LaFountain joined the House Assist Program. As had been true for Turner, the little little bit of state cash helped LaFountain — however it wasn’t sufficient to reside on.
It’s been highly effective, mentioned LaFountain, to share her story.
“I started just telling Ricky’s struggles,” LaFountain mentioned, in addition to “our story and our struggles, and how if there was health insurance, that I wouldn’t have to be on Medicaid.”
LaFountain poses for a portrait taken by Ricky Johnson, with some help holding the digital camera.
Turner, who lives in deep-blue Wayne County, which Kamala Harris gained by virtually 30 factors in 2024, agreed utterly. “I learned that there’s power in numbers … strength in numbers,” she mentioned.
General, Turner mentioned, she felt fortunate. “I take care of my daughter, and she does have good moments when I’m able to leave for a couple of hours.” However she is aware of not each caregiver has that freedom. “The ones that can’t leave … those are the ones that I was really fighting for,” she mentioned.
