LA Home Care Providers Rally And Demand Higher Wage
Home care providers took to the streets Tuesday morning, demanding their hourly wages be increased from $9.65 to $15.00. The march began at Plaza Olvera before moving downtown to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
The "We Care LA" campaign, spearheaded by the SEIU United Long Term Care Workers (ULTCW), organized the day's march in an attempt to raise awareness for the services for the elderly and the disabled provided by home care providers. Currently, the home care providers attend to 160,000 low-income or disabled L.A. County residents, but many of the providers themselves fall below the poverty line. In fact, organizers cited research that said 81 percent of L.A. County's In-Home Supportive Services providers live in poverty.
Tina and Louis James were two of the members of the demonstrations throughout the day, but their involvement was more personal than most. Louis James became the health care provider for his wife, Tina, after she became disabled and has served in that capacity since. Previously, Tina James was an X-ray technician making more than $20 per hour, but now her husband makes less than half of that.
In attendance at the demonstration and march today were SEIU International Executive Vice President Gerald Hudson and Laphonza Bulter, the president of the SEIU ULTCW.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors did not take any action today in response to the demonstration.
