Claire has been donating plasma twice a week for 3 years.  “My husband and I lost our cleaning-service business three years ago,” the fifty-six-year-old said outside of her local BioLife plasma center. “The money doesn’t cover the whole month, but we need it for extra things in the budget.” These extra things consist of her daughter’s softball fee and money towards a vacation.

Claire is far from the only person who is donating her plasma because she is stretched for cash. In fact, it seems the majority of people that we spoke with outside of the collection center donate plasma for the financial compensation.

Unions provide a vital lifeline for home health care workers, many of whom put in long hours with few benefits. But union rights for these workers are now coming under attack, writes Michael Hiltzik for the Los Angeles Times.

On July 12, the administration proposed changes to Medicaid regulations, making it more difficult for home workers whose services are paid for through Medicaid to pay their union dues.  

The goal of the rule, much like the Supreme Court’s recent Janus decision, is to starve unions out of existence so they can no longer protect workers.

The United Steelworkers  union strongly condemns the split decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to side with big-money interests and harm the ability of public sector workers to collectively bargain.

Make no mistake, this case was an attack on unions, working people and the causes that the labor movement fights for every day. But no court case will stop unions and their supporters from fighting back against efforts to weaken and divide us.

This assault on workers was financed by conservative, right-wing billionaires and the organizations they support, including the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, to undermine labor and the quality family-sustaining jobs that have developed over decades of collective bargaining.