Unions
Many people
know that I am now a full-time caregiver for my brother. This is not how I had planned for my later
years, but I am happy to be in his life and able to offer him the care and
services he needs.
I work for
an agency which pays me. I report my
hours to them and am trained by them. The
past few months, I have been called and emailed by healthcare workers unions. They
want the employees of this home care agency to vote to unionize and pay them to
“represent” the homecare workers. The
homecare agency is calling and emailing telling us we don’t have to do that,
and we can ignore the unions asking for our money.
Yesterday I
was visited at my home by a woman. She was in front of my house as I was coming
back from a long walk with my dog. I asked
her who she was looking for and she was looking for me. She asked if we could go under the carport
out of the rain. I said “no”. I wanted her to go through her speech as to
why I should join their union. I do
support unions. I have always belonged
to unions but this one was different.
“So,” I
asked her after she went through her presentation. “Your union will represent me if I abuse my
patient, if I steal or I use drugs illegally”?
She looked puzzled and said “yes”.
“Who” I
asked her “represents the patient?”
As I originally searched for a caregiver for my brother over a year ago, I said he needed someone in the morning. They sent people who would only work evenings. I said he had cats (he no longer does) and they sent people who were allergic to cats. I said he lives upstairs. They sent people who couldn’t walk the stairs. He needs rides to go shopping. They sent people who don’t drive.
I explained this to this lovely woman as we stood out in the rain and asked again, “who represents the patient?” I invited her in out of the rain to sit at my kitchen table. She didn’t have an answer.
