If you want to get involved with Strickland's campaign, you can do so here:Cleveland is one of 20 cities where home care workers are holding town hall meetings with this message for public officials, policy makers and community leaders: "We want a $15 minimum wage."The meeting in Cleveland will be 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church, 1161 E. 105 St. Organizing home care workers is also part of the national agenda, though many workers in Northeast Ohio already belong to the Service Employees Union District 1199. Former Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, will speak.
"I support home care workers in the fight for $15 and a union because I know a good-paying union job is the best way to strengthen Ohio's middle class," he said in a written statement.
Home care workers have been among the less visible of the low-wage workers, including those in the fast-food retail industries, who have been fighting for higher salaries. Home care workers, including those belonging to the SEIU, raised their cause as part of the one-day strikes by fast-food workers last year, in which both demanded a $15 minimum in their fields.
A recently released report on home care workers by the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, or PHI, in New York City, places the median hourly salary of home care workers at $9.61, which is about the same as Labor Department statistics. That comes to under $20,000-a-year for full-time work. - The Plain Dealer, 3/2/15
