Sarah Okeson

News-Leader

Home health care worker Cartessie Johnson has a dream: to afford a place of her own for herself and her 13-year-old daughter.

Johnson, who is paid $239 every two weeks, started crying as she talked about how she gets school supplies for her daughter and food from area churches.

"She always asks me why I can't get certain things," Johnson said.

Johnson spoke at the Springfield home of the man she is caring for, Ulysses Calloway, as part of a statewide campaign by the Missouri Home Care Union to raises wages for the union's members to $11 an hour. Currently, the average wage statewide is $8.60 an hour, which is funded by Medicaid.

The union, which represents as many as 13,000 workers, is negotiating its new contract. The workers provide home care for Missouri Medicaid recipients to help them stay in their homes. They had not been permitted to unionize for years because of a lawsuit challenging the validity of a vote to approve the union but won a legal victory in May 2012.

Johnson, who was making a lunch of polish sausage and rice for Calloway, said she bathes him, cuts his toenails, gives him massages and mows the lawn.

"I do everything," Johnson said.

Calloway, 60, who met Johnson through the church the two attend, New Hope International Ministries, said the home care workers deserve a raise. Johnson is paid through the Southwest Center for Independent Living.

"The work and care they do is phenomenal," said Calloway who has had two strokes and sometimes has trouble walking. "She makes my life a lot better."

Opponents of the union have said they fear it could open the door to unionize more than this segment of the home health care industry in Missouri.

A lawsuit financially backed by a Springfield company, Integra Healthcare, prevented the start of negotiations for years.

"I really think it's going to throw the industry into chaos," said the former principal owner of Integra, Phil Melugin.

He questioned where money for the higher wages will come from. Melugin now owns Phoenix Home Care. He said workers there earn $9 to $11 an hour which the company pays out of the $15.56 reimbursement it receives from the state.

"Do they expect the providers to artificially be mandated to raise the pay? Melugin asked.

At the Calloway home. Johnson finished cooking Polish sausage for lunch. She slid it onto a plate and then warmed up cooked rice in the microwave.

State Rep. Charlie Norr, D-Springfield, a former union member himself, was at the house to show his support for higher pay.

Earlier, Norr tried to comfort Johnson as she cried. Now he told her that maybe the governor will help.

"We're going to try," Norr said.