New Freedom Foundation video features in-home care provider among dozens of workers challenging California unions.
Dallas, TX – A California in-home caregiver, in a video released today by the Freedom Foundation, accuses SEIU Local 2015 of draining her paycheck and ignoring her when she asked for help.
Roxanna Castro cares for patients living with schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis and other conditions through California’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program. She is one of more than three dozen IHSS workers on whose behalf the Freedom Foundation has filed unfair labor practice charges challenging how unions keep caregivers paying dues they don’t want to pay.
For Castro, those dues hit hard.
“I believe the union take(s) advantage of us as providers,” Castro said. “So, when I get to my check of $116, my dues were $45, and my gas bill was $62 for the month. The union was taking my monthly utility money. I was working for nothing.”
When she tried to opt out, Castro said, the union told her it was there in case she needed help. But when she did need help, no one answered.
“I called them (a) few times and nobody gave me an answer,” Castro said. “I felt helpless, hopeless.”
“I am a Hispanic woman,” she said, “and I have been here to work hard. A union is just ripping us off. When I came to this country to work, I never thought that here in (the) USA will be happening something like what (the) union is doing to us as providers.”
Castro’s experience shows why the Freedom Foundation fights for public workers. Too many California homecare providers remain locked into paying dues through practices the Freedom Foundation argues are unconstitutional.
“Thank God I found the Freedom Foundation on Facebook.”
Earlier this year, the Freedom Foundation filed 36 unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against SEIU Local 2015, SEIU Local 721 and United Domestic Workers of America (UDW/AFSCME Local 3930) on behalf of California in-home care providers, including Roxanna Castro, Shequita Chamberlain, and Chaquan May.
Watch Castro’s full video here.
