Published: November 25, 2019

This year, our Union settled the best round of contracts in over a decade, winning meaningful wage increases and other important changes for tens of thousands of families in Oregon.

Rebecca Sandoval, homecare worker and member of the 2019 bargaining team: “This is one of the proudest moments in my career. We are rising to the challenges in the long-term care sector. Winning a retirement plan and a wage increase will help pull this workforce up financially. This contract will make us stronger, more stable, and better able to support seniors and people with disabilities.”

Homecare & Personal Support Worker contract highlights

  • Wages. $15 base pay! We’ve been fighting for $15 for sometime, and homecare workers in states without a strong union earn far less. 
  • Groundbreaking retirement plan. Starting in the summer of 2020, homecare workers and PSWs will be have an optional retirement account through Oregon Saves that’s paid for by a 5% wage increase. 
  • Safety policy. This is a first-in-the-nation policy, spelling out homecare and personal support workers’ rights when they feel unsafe is someone’s home.
  • Read more.

All of this was made possible by SEIU 503 members who showed up and pushed this over the finish line. By sticking together in union, we’re changing Oregon’s long-term care system for the better.

A message from Steve Demarest, an employee of the Oregon Employment Department and current statewide president of SEIU 503: “If not the Union, then who? Nobody is out there advocating for working people in this country, except for working people. It has to be us, together in union, that fight for a better life.”

I want to be a union member!

The benefits of being in Union come when we all contribute, to defend our rights and improve our workplaces and communities, by becoming full members and taking action.

Join today!

I want to be a union member!

The benefits of being in Union come when we all contribute, to defend our rights and improve our workplaces and communities, by becoming full members and taking action.

Join today!