Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8
      • Voter ID laws stand between transgender people, women and the ballot box

        Barbara Rodriguez · October 14
      • Emily’s List expands focus on diverse candidates and voting rights ahead of midterm elections

        Errin Haines · August 30

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Mary Kay Henry speaks to workers at a rally outside of the Willis Tower headquarters of United Airlines.
Mary Kay Henry, international president of Service Employees International Union, speaks to workers at a rally outside of the Willis Tower headquarters of United Airlines in March 2022 in Chicago. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Environment & Climate

Union president on why care work is inextricably linked to challenges of climate change

Mary Kay Henry, the SEIU’s first woman president, says a stable care force could help communities adapt to and survive natural disasters.

Jessica Kutz

Gender, climate and sustainability reporter

Published

2022-05-13 05:00
5:00
May 13, 2022
am

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

When Democratic policymakers including Rep. Alexandra Ocasio Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey tout their Green New Deal legislation, they are usually speaking about climate-related jobs — employment in clean energy production, environmental restoration or climate adaptation work in cities. 

Their overarching goal is to create policies and jobs that will transition the country in a way that centers low-income communities of color — those most impacted by the climate crisis. 

Mary Kay Henry, the first woman president of the Service Employees International Union and a supporter of the legislation, wants the country to consider incorporating another class of workers all together in climate policy: care workers. The SEIU represents about 2 million workers, including more than 800,000 home care workers, most of whom are women, Henry said.

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

It’s why SEIU partnered with the Green New Deal Network for a series of protests last month, to present a united front on climate and care work as they urged Congress to pass Build Back Better legislation before the midterms, which included $500 billion for climate action and $150 billion in home care funding. The bill has been stalled for months, with no support from Republicans and opposition from two Democratic senators blocking its passage.

Henry argues that a stable care force could play a crucial role in helping communities adapt and survive a future replete with worsening natural disasters like wildfires, heat waves, hurricanes and flooding events. 

Including care work in the fight for climate action could also broaden opportunities for women. 

Clean energy jobs, which pay on average $25 an hour, are still overwhelmingly held by men. Care jobs, on the other hand, pay on average $13.51 an hour and are predominantly filled by women, women of color and immigrants. Most workers don’t receive any additional benefits like retirement funds or health care, according to the Economic Policy Institute. 

The 19th spoke with Henry about the reasons for linking these two policy priorities, the role care work can play in a green economy and how her union pushes for climate-friendly legislation across the country. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

How did SEIU become involved in climate change work? How are care workers being impacted by the climate crisis?

Our members live in the most polluted ZIP codes in the country. And their children are experiencing disproportionate rates of asthma and cancer. So our members and their families have made us part of this movement in a louder and louder way. 

We have nursing home workers and janitors whose children were poisoned in Flint by the water crisis. We have school workers and health care workers on the island of Puerto Rico who have been devastated by Hurricane Maria and the lack of response in the subsequent storms. We have members who have contended with floods and wildfires and tornadoes.

Most recently, our home care workers have done these extraordinary acts of courage. When communities are told to evacuate in a fire, oftentimes our home care workers and their clients don’t have the resources to evacuate. One example is Maria Alvarez, a home care worker from Santa Paula, California. She was caring for her client Alex in 2018 when a wildfire erupted. She couldn’t evacuate Alex because he’s confined to his bed and she wasn’t able to carry him. When the power failed, she took over for the machine that keeps him breathing on a regular basis and manually kept his airway open and his lungs pumping. She did this for two whole days and nights keeping him alive. 

We also have the stories of loss of life both in Northern California, Oregon and Washington of our home care members and their clients who were impacted because they couldn’t evacuate. 

It’s made our union understand and the climate movement understand that the fight to invest in caregiving and the fight to stop climate change are inextricably linked in the lives of our members.

What role do care workers play in helping society adapt to climate change or to contend with these disasters?

There’s a groundbreaking effort by our California home care workers called the Home Care Resilience Program. Our home care local (unit) was able to convince the governor and state legislature that they needed to invest in home care workers as part of the first responder system, because they’re often in isolated areas. They are now being trained in California to help firefighters as first responders, creating a safer way to help people that don’t have resources.  

We know that these frontline workers are essential to the ongoing functioning of our society, both for the home care crisis, as we all age, and the childcare crisis, as moms and dads have left the paid workforce in order to care for their kids. 

And the pandemic has shown us that frontline workers are not safe, protected or supported by their employers to take care of themselves and their families. So all of us pay the price for that.

What would it look like if we included care workers in a just transition, a concept I think most people associate more with clean energy jobs?

We know the impacts of climate change are being felt unevenly across socioeconomic lines and that the poor and vulnerable are disproportionately at risk. So I think, to invest in care is to advance the resilience that our communities need to meet the challenge of the climate crisis. 

We know that the number of seniors and people with disabilities who are going to be impacted by climate disasters and environmental injustice is expected to double by 2050. And so I think what it would look like is it expands how resilient we are as a society by investment in care work. And it helps us think about these interlocking emergencies: the aging of the population and the isolation of caregivers and their clients in especially rural areas where they don’t have the resources they need to contend with the escalating weather disasters that are unfolding in terms of floods and wildfires.

You were part of recent protests around Earth Day calling for climate action. What specific policies either on the state level or federal level is SEIU supporting? What would you like to see passed while Democrats still have the majority?

Well, we’re continuing to fight for the investment in climate and care as part of this Senate’s deliberation about whether there’s going to be another reconciliation bill that creates millions of good-paying union jobs in clean energy, home care, and addresses racial and economic inequities, and finally tackles climate change. 

We just did a West Virginia video town hall this weekend that 4,000 West Virginians participated in that was driving calls to [Sen. Joe] Manchin about trying to address those things. [Manchin is one of two Democrats who has opposed some of the  Build Back Better legislation.] 

At the state level, there’s a million things that we are doing. We’re pursuing both investment in care and innovative climate work that’s not being led by our union, but that we’re backing, like healthy schools and solar in schools initiatives.  And this home care resilience program I was talking about, we’re now going to try and take it national. 

Finally, as the first woman president of SEIU, what role do you see gender playing in discussions of the economy and climate action? 

I think that investing in child care and home care work is a way to right a historical wrong that was done when those jobs were excluded from all of the New Deal advances in the ’30s. Both home care and child care jobs have been excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act, Social Security, overtime pay, unemployment, health insurance, all of those things.

So we’ve had to fight state by state, place by place, collective bargaining agreement by collective bargaining agreement, for basic rights for work that has been done by women. 

Investing in care work is a way to send a message that we value labor that has been done primarily by women since the beginning of time. And that if we want to upgrade this work, which is the fastest-growing job in the U.S. economy, we’re going to lift up all other jobs in the economy.

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

Up Next

Sen. Elizabeth Warren walks down a corridor flanked by reporters.

Abortion

Democrats’ abortion bill fails — again — and they turn to November elections

The Women’s Health Protection Act failed to overcome the Senate filibuster a second time, as all Republicans and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin voted against it.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram