SEIU 775

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare 775NW was formed in 2003 when home care and nursing home workers from several different SEIU locals formed a labor union focused on long-term care workers and issues. In 2007, the union changed its name from SEIU 775 to SEIU Healthcare 775NW, as part of a reorganization of its parent union, the Service Employees International Union. SEIU Healthcare 775NW now represents almost 40,000 home care and nursing home workers in Washington and Montana.

Its stated mission is to "unite the strength of all long-term care workers, to improve the lives of working families and lead the way to a more just and humane world." The majority of union members are independent providers of non-medical, in-home care for disabled and elderly persons receiving Medicaid. The union also represents home care worker employees of several Washington home care agencies with State contracts to provide home care to qualified Medicaid recipients.

History

The labor union is named after Washington State Initiative 775, the Quality Home Care Initiative, which voters approved in 2001 and which gave 23,000 Individual Provider home care workers the right to form a union in the largest union election ever held in Washington state. The "Quality Home Care Initiative" gave long-term care providers in Washington the right to unionize and negotiate over working conditions and pay.