From SEIU Virginia 512:
SEIU Virginia 512 Home Care Worker Elisha joined by Virginia Gubernatorial Candidate Abigail Spanberger to Walk-a-Day in her shoes
BURKE, Va., August 19, 2025 – Virginia 512 member Elisha Woods was joined by Virginia Gubernatorial Candidate Abigail Spanberger for a day on the job as a home care worker, as part of the union’s “Walk-a-Day in My Shoes” program. Walk-a-Days give elected leaders and political candidates the opportunity to shadow an essential worker and receive a hands-on experience doing some of the most important jobs in our communities.
A majority women and women of color workforce, home care workers provide skilled, compassionate, individual care that allows seniors and people with disabilities to live with dignity at home. Woods, 29, has been a home care worker for more than a decade, and is paid through Virginia’s Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS), a Medicaid-funded program. Her current client, Ethan, has spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy and requires 24-hour care.
“My grandma ran her own elderly care giving business so I’ve done this my entire life. I used to go to work with her,” Elisha shared. “I arrive here at 7:00 in the morning and I’m immediately rushing upstairs because seizures will start. By then, I’m observing if he has soiled the entire bed, and then I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, there’s so much laundry to do already.’”
In addition to performing typical tasks like laundry and preparing meals, Elisha demonstrated the use of a stander, a supportive device that allows Ethan to get out of his wheelchair and “stand” upright. Serving as an example of the close attention to detail and specialized knowledge home care workers must have, the stander must be set to a specific, precise angle to ensure Ethan’s spine is properly aligned.
During her visit, as shown in the video, Spanberger said to Elisha, “I think that one of the important elements of formalizing collective bargaining is the acknowledgement that your calling is a career, and that when we want people who are dedicated to serving the most vulnerable, ensuring that you all have a voice is what’s really important.”
Home care workers are an essential part of America’s healthcare system, but their jobs are one of the most unrespected, unprotected and underpaid in the country. Far too many families cannot afford home care or cannot find and retain qualified workers because of inadequate funding for home- and community-based care and high turnover rates caused by burnout, low wages and lack of benefits. Elisha works for just under $18 an hour, but the majority of home care workers across Virginia earn just $13.88 an hour due to an unjust two tier pay system of Northern Virginia and the rest of the state.
In early 2025, SEIU and its labor allies passed a ground-breaking bill to ensure all public employees — including 28,000 consumer-directed home care workers like Woods — have collective bargaining rights. While data show that 68% of Virginia voters approve of public sector employees joining a union and collectively bargaining, Governor Youngkin vetoed the bill and several others (worker retention, $15 minimum wage, paid family and medical leave), setting up collective bargaining and workers rights as a clear contrast in the 2025 elections.
United in SEIU Virginia 512, home care workers like Woods are calling on all elected leaders and candidates to prioritize raising the standards of care and care jobs in Virginia. Supporting the direct care workforce and prioritizing improvements to programs like DMAS is fundamental in addressing the long term care crisis, and Elisha emphasized that Virginia’s next governor must be a champion for unions and drive legislation that secures collective bargaining rights for home care workers.
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SEIU Virginia 512 is an active union representing 16,000 public sector workers across the commonwealth, and leading the care fight with more than 1,500 home care members . Along with consumers and allies, SEIU VA512 advocates for quality care for older adults and people with disabilities, as well as family-sustaining wages and benefits for home care workers in Virginia. United in our union, Virginia home care workers have won multiple major raises, a path to $15/hour, hazard pay, thousands of new waiver slots for older adults and people with disabilities, assistance with paycheck issues, the first paid sick days ever provided for Virginia’s home care workers, orientation, and more.
