WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 13, 2018) — The Trump administration has proposed changing federal rules at the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) to prohibit payroll deduction for union dues for individual providers of home health care.
Over the last 15 years, home care workers who suffered from notoriously low pay and few benefits have organized into unions, primarily with Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Since doing so, they have seen steady wage increase and significant gains in benefits, particularly in Washington state. This has led to a far more stable, professional network of personalized health and social support for seniors and for people living with disabilities.
On the heels of the Supreme Court’s Janus decision attacking organized labor, CMS has proposed a rule change that would prohibit home health aides paid directly by Medicaid from having their union dues automatically deducted from their paychecks. As with Janus, the goal is to make it less likely that workers pay dues in order to “defund and defang” the union movement.
TAKE A STAND — CMS is currently taking public comment on this important issue. Please take some time TODAY to submit comments here — as concerned individuals and/or on behalf of your unions — in opposition to this rule proposal. Comments must be submitted by 5 p.m. today (Monday, Aug. 13).
“Barring states from incorporating these kinds of payment arrangements into their programs, as the Department proposes, will harm individual providers and place added stress on Medicaid beneficiaries,” wrote the AFL-CIO, in its comments regarding the rule. “This action by the Department will deny workers, whose wages are already low and whose jobs are difficult and demanding, easy access to training and benefits and make those workers pay more to get such benefits on their own. In turn, beneficiaries who want to live independently in their own homes and direct the hiring of their care providers will find it more and more difficult to hire and keep skilled workers.”