Home care workers across Pennsylvania are standing up in solidarity with home care workers in Birmingham, England who are on strike after their employer, the Birmingham City Council, proposed making deep cuts to home care services. Workers are in danger of losing up to $14,000 a year thanks to potentially lost hours.
The union workers have been on strike now for over 30 days and still city council plans to gut a much-needed service to the communities of Birmingham — a service home care workers there take pride in delivering.
In a letter expressing solidarity and support, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania President Matthew Yarnell writes of the plight of home care workers here in our own state.
“Homecare workers in Pennsylvania know what it’s like to be in a long fight for social and economic justice. Across ten years and three successive administrations of Governors, homecare workers have organized to be heard.” — Matthew Yarnell, President of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania
You can read the full text of the letter here.
The Birmingham workers are members of UNISON, Britain’s public sector and healthcare workers’ union. They are receiving support and solidarity from other trade unionists and the public across the globe.
You can show your support for the Birmingham home care workers as they fight to save their jobs and livelihood, and defend public services for Birmingham citizens, by sending an email to UNISON Regional Secretary Ravi Subramanian at R.Subramanian@unison.co.uk or writing to the UNISON branch office at UNISON, 19th Floor, McLaren Building, 46 The Priory Queensway, Birmingham B4 7LR UK
For more information about the Birmingham home care workers and their fight go to www.facebook.com/birminghamunison.
