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In Our Own Words
Tiffany Chase
"My name is Tiffany Chase and I am an attendant for my aunt, and I'm in school. When my aunt went into the hospital, my salary completely stopped. I enjoy my job, but this is not the first time I have been in this situation, and I am sure it will not be the last. If there was a system where I could be of use to another consumer while my main consumer was away, it would solve my financial dilemma and I could continue on with my education. This is why I am asking you to support the Consumer Workforce Council."
Tiffany Chase
Philadelphia, PA
Time for the Consumer Workforce Council!
A Consumer Workforce Council will expand home care options for seniors and people with disabilities -- while improving wages and providing health benefits for the direct care attendants who serve them.
Tell our Legislators and Governor Rendell: It's Time for the Consumer Workforce Council!
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United Home Care Workers of Pennsylvania Make Waves!
Major congratulations to home care workers Iris Troche and Jessica Santiago for telling their stories of why they want to improve home care in Pennsylvania's leading Spanish-language paper, Al Dia. They are working with home care consumers and workers to build the Consumer Workforce Council -- so they can keep providing exemplary care while earing the wages and benefits they need. Read their story in English below, and check out the attachment for a Spanish-language version!
They provide care and they don't have medical services
http://www.pontealdia.com/local/proveen-cuidados-y-no-tienen-servicio-medico-2.html
Al Dia, December 7th-13th, Adriana Arvizo
Independent health care workers seek to unite and join the United Home Care Workers of Pennsylvania unio in order to get better working conditions, explained German Parodi, who works at Liberty Resources, an agency that administers official resources for these workers.
Parodi explained that this initiative is part of an intergovernmental program that permits most union rights and benefits, but without the right to strike.
He added that they are waiting for the authorization of the governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell.
It's been two years since Daniel Aroche suffered an accident that left him in a vegetative state and his sister Iris Troche cares for him along with their mother. They both work through the agency, caring for their own relatives.
"It's very heavy work; we do all of his personal care, we give him food, medicine and water through a tube," said Troche, 28 years old.
"We have been working for two years and have never received any pay increase or vacations; these are things that one can say aren't just, and we don't get benefits because we haven't got a union; it's humiliating," added Troche.
Troche, who is originally from Puerto Rico, also considers health insurance a necessary benefit as doing her job requires a lot of physical effort.
"Each two hours we move him, for his circulation -- and he weighs ten pounds more than I do. If my mother or I hurt our backs we don't have health insurance from the company, we have to pay out of our own pockets," said Troje.
The Santiago family lives with a similar situation.
Jessica Santiago, 25 years old, looks after her sister Monica, 28, who suffers from muscular dystrophy and is unable to walk.
Santiago also works through Liberty and has cared for her sister for three years, day and night. "I arrive in the morning and help to bathe her, bathe her 2 year old baby, I do the shopping, and cook," she said.
"I like the work, and I am already accustomed to it because it's something I've done since I was a child, but I don't see much future as they don't realise how much work it is," she said.
"I like the idea of having a union in order to get benefits for us and also for the people we care for; I'd like them to provide ramps and additional facilities," mentioned Santiago.
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| al_dia_adriana_arvizo_united_home_care_workers_of_PA_dec_9_2008.pdf | 109.59 KB |