PCA union makes early push for new contract
Minnesota’s unionized personal care assistants (PCAs) are making an early push for a new contract agreement with the state.
The PCAs, who work with the elderly and disabled in their homes, voted two years ago to form a union. They are represented by SEIU. Their first-ever contract went into effect in 2015 and won’t expire until next summer.
During a news conference Wednesday, PCA Corey Van Denburgh of Oak Grove said further improvements are needed to address a workforce shortage.
“We are hoping that during negotiations our elected leaders can recognize and feel the gravity of the crisis we are in,” Van Denburgh said. “Investing in the workforce is the only solution.”
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Van Denburgh said PCAs will seek an increase in their minimum hourly wage, from $11 to $15. Other contract proposals address overtime pay and training.
Jasmine Laducer-Kitto, a PCA for 11 years, warned that too few people can afford the job’s low-wages and lack of benefits.
“If you want people to get quality care in their home, then you have to be able to respect not only the people receiving it but the people giving it,” Laducer-Kitto said.
PCAs also noted that they are backing legislative candidates who support their cause in next month's election.
The push for a new contract comes at the same time that some anti-union PCAs are collecting signatures to force a new statewide vote and decertify the union.
Doug Seaton, a Minneapolis lawyer working on the decertification effort, said fewer than a quarter of the estimated 27,000 eligible PCAs voted in 2014.
“We’re finding very little support for the union when we go door-to-door," Seaton said.
Seaton said he hopes to have the needed signatures filed with the state by Dec. 2.
Union negotiators hope to reach a tentative agreement with the state for a second PCA contract by the end of the year.