WHEREAS:

More than half of the two million Americans who care for aging parents are also participants in the paid labor force; and

WHEREAS:

The average caregiver is a working woman in her forties who spends at least six to ten hours a week on unpaid caregiving tasks for a period of five years or more; and

WHEREAS:

The labor force is aging, thus ensuring that more and more workers in the future will find themselves with caregiving responsibilities for elderly parents or spouses; and

WHEREAS:

These employees must often take on difficult and unwieldy caregiving duties for parents who live far away; they need extra time to arrange for care and services for elders, and must weather emergencies when counted-on services don't materialize or when a parent's health suddenly fails; and

WHEREAS:

Many family caregivers don't know where to find the necessary services in the community, or have great difficulty in meeting the high cost of care; and

WHEREAS:

Family caregivers are often under enormous stress from trying to balance all the responsibilities of home and work — which sometimes inhibits their ability to fully function on the job, forces them to seek less-demanding employment, or requires them to abandon the work force entirely; and

WHEREAS:

it is clearly in the best interests of employers who seek to maintain a stable and effective labor force to help find solutions to the family caregiving problems of their employees.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

That this 29th International Convention recognize the needs of our brother and sister workers who must care for aging relatives; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME and its affiliates encourage employers — through collective bargaining and other means — to adopt workplace practices that aid family caregivers by allowing periods of paid or unpaid leave without penalty; permit employees to use their own sick leave to care for aging relatives; establish personal leave days; institute on-site day care centers for the elderly as well as children; develop flexible work schedules and job-sharing programs; provide referrals for community resources such as adult daycare programs, homemaker services and area nursing homes; offer stress-management workshops or eldercare counseling through employee assistance programs; and by initiating other compassionate responses; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME negotiate benefit plans that enable employees to choose the lifestyle related options that aid family caregivers, including those that would assist workers in obtaining and paying for eldercare; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

That AFSCME and its affiliated councils and locals support state and federal legislation to aid family caregivers, such as legislation to permit periods of paid or unpaid job leave and, ultimately, a federal social insurance program to cover the cost of long-term care.

SUBMITTED BY:

James Glass, International Vice President
AFSCME Council 25
Michigan