My son recently turned five. He’s been begging me to take him to Chuck E. Cheese’s to celebrate, but I can’t take him, because this month every penny I have will go to an oil change for the car.
That’s the kind of impossible choice home-care workers and other underpaid workers make regularly. I’ve been a home-care worker he last 25 years. Every day I drive 30 miles to a group home where I care for people with disabilities. I help them shower, dress, walk, eat, cook and do everything else they need to do to live comfortably.
After more than two decades on the job, I make only $10 an hour; I haven’t seen a raise in three years. I barely make it. That $10 simply is nowhere near enough to raise my two children, pay rent, keep the car running and put food on the table.
Last month, at a historic Fight for $15 convention at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta home-care workers met with fast-food workers from across the South. We heard about the strikes they’ve waged in places like Atlanta, Raleigh and Memphis over the past two years. We wanted to do something to show we have a similar commitment to winning $15 and a union.
Since we cannot strike in the same way as fast-food workers and wouldn’t want to leave our clients without care, Atlanta home-care workers decided to embark on our own kind of workplace action. We’re going to #Take15for15, embarking on 15-minute one- and two-person protests outside our clients’ homes.
We’re not protesting against our clients. In many cases they will join us. But by taking 15 for $15, we demonstrate our willingness to do whatever it takes to win $15 and a union. A few of us have already taken action and many more joined in across Atlanta on April 15.
We’ll stand with fast-food workers on their strike lines as we know their struggle and ours are the same. We are all underpaid, like too many workers in America. Before I moved to Georgia to care for my elderly parents, I was a member of a home-care workers’ union in Ohio, so I know how much better a union would make life for home-care workers here.
In Georgia, home-care workers don’t have minimum wage or overtime protections. The average wage for home-care workers is $13,000 a year. We don’t get paid sick days. We can be fired at any time. Despite being one of the country’s highest demand, fastest-growing jobs, home care isn’t treated like a real job.
We’re taking care of mothers and fathers. We allow them to stay in their homes as they get older, but we can’t even take care of our own families.
I work full-time as a home-care worker. My husband, bless him, works two or three jobs, also in home care. Together, we’re barely able to put food on the table for our children, much less give them birthday presents. And so my son’s birthday will pass without a celebration.
In February, my daughter's 16th birthday also passed without a celebration. That's just how life is for home-care workers and their families.
This year, we have a reason to hope. Home-care workers across the country are joining college students, adjunct professors, fast-food, airport, WalMart and child-care workers to do whatever it takes to win $15 per hour and a union. Workers everywhere are standing together to demand more for those who work hard but don’t make enough to get by. We can see a day in the near future when we don’t have to choose between our kids and our cars.
Marie Mdamu lives in Riverdale and works with clients in Tucker and Marietta.
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