Why Marton Care Urges a No Vote in the Proposed CDPAP Union Election

An opinion statement from Marton Care

Marton Care believes personal assistants should vote no in the proposed union election for New York’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP).

We do not believe unions are bad. Unions have helped many workers secure better pay, benefits, and working conditions. Personal assistants deserve to be paid fairly, paid on time, and treated with respect.

Our concern is about the foundation of CDPAP itself: the person receiving care directs that care.

Under CDPAP, a consumer or their designated representative chooses the personal assistant, trains them, schedules them, supervises their work, and may end the arrangement. That authority matters because care takes place inside the consumer’s home. It can involve bathing, dressing, eating, mobility, and other deeply personal needs.

The paycheck may be processed by a fiscal intermediary, with the service funded through Medicaid. But the person who lives with the consequences of every staffing decision is the consumer.

This is personal to us

Before Marton Care’s CDPAP operations ended following New York’s change to the fiscal intermediary system, our program served a 107-year-old consumer. Think about what dependable, familiar assistance means to someone at that age. Across New York, people of many ages and with many different disabilities rely on their chosen assistants to get through each day safely.

That is why we ask personal assistants to consider more than a bargaining proposal when they vote. Consider the consumer who chose you. Consider the trust they placed in you, and how much they may depend on your presence tomorrow morning.

Our concern about collective bargaining in CDPAP

We are concerned that a collective bargaining structure could place decisions affecting personal assistants into negotiations between organizations, while the individual consumer has no comparable seat at that table. We worry about conflicts between collectively negotiated rules and a consumer’s ability to direct care according to their own needs.

We are also concerned about the possibility of a service interruption. A missed day of work in many settings is disruptive. For someone who needs help getting out of bed, eating, or remaining safe at home, a missed day of care can be far more serious.

These are concerns about what could happen, not a claim that a union election would automatically take away consumers’ legal rights or cause a strike. But the stakes are high enough that we believe personal assistants should weigh those risks carefully.

Protect assistants and consumers

New York can and should address late pay, inadequate compensation, and poor administrative support. Personal assistants should have a strong voice when those problems are addressed. At the same time, CDPAP must preserve what makes it different from traditional agency home care: the consumer’s ability to choose and direct the person who cares for them.

For these reasons, Marton Care urges CDPAP personal assistants to vote no in the proposed union election.

Keep CDPAP consumer directed. Keep it what it is.

Sources

• New York State Department of Health, CDPAP overview: https://www.health.ny.gov/health_care/medicaid/program/longterm/cdpap/
• New York CDPAP regulation, including consumer responsibilities: https://regs.health.ny.gov/content/section-50528-consumer-directed-personal-assistance-program
• National Labor Relations Board petition record: https://www.nlrb.gov/case/03-RC-395461