How do I leave my Union? [View all]

[Sivafae]

I am an In-Home Support Services (IHSS) here in California and I am sick and tired of paying a union to get minimal benefits and pay. I want to leave my union and perhaps join another, if they will take me, to get a raise that we IHSS workers haven't had since 2003. That is 12 years. We are the backbone of our clients' lives, we need to be treated as just a precious. Here in Ca, Dear Gov. Brown put a provision in the new law for workers that gives them a mandated 3 days of sick leave, that excepted IHSS workers--the only people excluded. This is old.

(I know that there are people out there who say we should expand medicare to be the one payer system, but after you read what I have just wrote, you might want to think about that some more)

I go on to my union website and see that they are out there protesting about immigration and other issues that affect the Latino community. That's great, but I need a raise and I am not Latino. Immigration is a great issue, but I would like some mandated days off, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER PERSON WHO WORKS IN THE STATE. I get tired of them taking what seems like a minimal amount to get nothing. Oh yeah...I do get medical and dental, but after working this job since 2007, I figured out in about 2012 that they didn't have my current address, so I didn't get those benefits. They happy to take my money, but rather slow to make sure that I am active in the union, taken care of as a worker, or even at the address they have on file for me. I live 30 to 40 miles away from the closest meeting. Or they hold informational meetings 60 miles away from where I live. I have no car.

This is so old. I am so pro-Union, but what the SEIU is doing is bullshit. This is such bullshit.

How do I leave and join another?

The Harris v Quinn decision just his last year changed the fact that I had pay the union, it specifically dealt with my line of work, caregivers who have to pay unions, because we are not considered full employees of the state.