SALEM — Oregon's largest state workers' union is trying to unionize adult foster-care providers, who are predominantly small business owners offering around-the-clock nursing care in their homes for up to five frail seniors or disabled people.
Service Employees International Union Local 503 is trying to recruit the state's 2,600 adult foster-care providers. SEIU also is promoting a Senate bill to legalize unionization of the providers.
"The goal is that they don't have to take a vow of poverty to do this," Arthur Towers, the political director of SEIU Local 503, said Wednesday at the first hearing for SB 858.
An Eagle Point man who operates an adult foster-care home said Friday the union's proposal carries too many unanswered questions, particularly about additional costs that would be incurred.
"There is no fiscal impact in this bill," said Harry Schneider, who is executive director of the Association of Adult Family Providers for Jackson and Josephine counties.
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Schneider said there are no guarantees additional costs from organizing would mean an increase in Medicaid reimbursements.
"We are just barely getting by now," he charged. "It's the same scenario as the Jackson County libraries. The county didn't have the money, so they closed. No money, no foster- care homes."
SEIU's campaign comes after successful drives to unionize home-care providers and home day-care center operators. Like adult foster-care providers, those people operate as independent contractors or business people but rely on state funding.
SEIU hopes to use its lobbying clout and staff resources to give providers more influence in policies set by state officials. Towers said unionizing could bring providers improved training, health insurance benefits, workplace injury insurance, more affordable liability insurance and other benefits.
"The system is broken with the state," testified Chris Thornock, an adult foster-care provider from Hillsboro. "I'm not being heard.
"As a businesswoman, I am losing money every night on state clients," Thornock said. "We receive a quarter of what a nursing home gets for the same care."
Petronella Donovan, one of many Romanians who have entered into the adult foster-care field in Oregon, said many of her peers misunderstand the union cards that SEIU asked them to sign.
Sen. Roger Beyer, R-Molalla, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee that is considering the bill, was skeptical.
"These are not workers; they are independent business people," Beyer said. "They would be forced to pay a fee to a group they don't want to support and don't want to belong to."
