(LANSING, MICHIGAN) - Two Bills are headed to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s desk that, when signed, will restore Collective Bargaining Rights for Home Health Care Workers in the State of Michigan.

Senate Bills 790 and 791, which have been passed by Michigan Legislators, seek to reestablish more than 30,000 workers’ right to collective bargaining and designates Home Health Care Workers as Public Employees.

Members of Michigan Home Care Workers United have campaigned for months in support of the legislation, during which more than 300 Home Health Care Workers traveled to Lansing to make their case to Lawmakers.

“I had to quit my career to become a Home Care Worker for my son,” Carmen Echevarria of Lincoln Park said. “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 (for less) Legislation.

Home Health Care Workers lost their Public Employee status in 2012 when Right-To-Work legislation was enacted under former Governor Rick Snyder.

Governor Whitmer 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.  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 Health Care 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.

To Continue Reading This Organizing Labor News Story, Go To: Michigan home healthcare workers one step closer to forming a union – People's World (peoplesworld.org)