1,700 Caregivers On Strike to End Poverty

Over 1,700 union group home and day program workers providing care for individuals with disabilities in six Medicaid-funded agencies across the state walked off their jobs on May 24 in an indefinite strike to end poverty. They are members of SEIU District 1199NE.

In addition to picketing work sites the caregivers are striking at the State Capitol each day to bring their message to Governor Ned Lamont and state legislators as they near the June 7 deadline for a state budget.

“I’ve been in the long-term care field for 20 years. I make $17.25 an hour,” Sylvia Grant, a caregiver working with Oak Hill for the past two years. “I’m prediabetic. I cannot afford my health care. I cannot afford to get sick. This is not acceptable. I should not have to make these choices in my life, while I’m taking care of the lives of other people.”

Caregivers are demanding a pathway to $25 an hour minimum wage, affordable healthcare and funding for retirement. To achieve these improvements in compensation and economic justice, strikers are demanding an additional $400 million in this state budget in Medicaid funding for group homes and day programs that care for individuals with disabilities.

This Medicaid funding, which requires $200 million in state funds and $200 million matched by federal funds, will lift both union and nonunion group home workers out of poverty in Connecticut.

The striking workers are receiving wide support, including from the Recovery for All coalition of 70 organizations state wide. An appeal from CT AFL CIO president Ed Hawthorne gives six ways to support the strike. A petition is being circulated on social media, donations are being accepted for the strike fund, and commitments to adopt a picket line are being organized.

Calls to legislators and the Governor’s office (860-566-4840 )are urged in support of a living wage, affordable healthcare and a pension for the caregivers.

The striking caregivers set up a “Lamont-ade Stand”outside the Governor’s residence, and pitched tents on the Capitol grounds to dramatize their struggle with homelessness with poverty wages.

The strike includes six agencies at nine locations providing care for about 1,500 individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities: Oak Hill, Mosaic, Whole Life, Network, Caring Community, and Alternative Services, Inc.