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Trump signs order seeking to end federal funding for NPR and PBS; NY immigrant wrongfully sent to El Salvador 'supermax' prison; PA 'Day of Action' planned for higher minimum wage, immigrants' rights; New bill in Congress seeks to overturn CA animal welfare law.

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National Security Advisor Mike Waltz is leaving that job to become UN ambassador, bipartisan Arizona poll finds Latino voters dissatisfied by Trump's first 100 days, and Florida mass deportations frighten community members.

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Rural students who face hurdles going to college are getting noticed, Native Alaskans may want to live off the land but obstacles like climate change loom large, and the Cherokee language is being preserved by kids in North Carolina.

Oregon Home Care Workers Secure $15 Hourly Wage

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Friday, August 28, 2015   

PORTLAND, Ore. - A pay raise is on the way for more than 20,000 home-care workers in Oregon.

A new contract has been settled with the state by SEIU Local 503 that outlines a pathway of up to $15 an hour by 2017. Home-care workers currently have a base wage of $13.75 an hour.

"Some people say, oh, $15 an hour isn't anything, but $15 an hour to us is a lot," said home-care worker Phyllis Wills, who was on the bargaining team. "They don't know what $15 an hour means to us - and it means freedom."

The contract will be up for a vote for all union members soon.

Eileen Ordway, a long-time home-care worker who also was on the bargaining team, said this new wage plan rewards workers who go the extra mile to improve their expertise and performance in order to support people so they can stay in their homes.

"It's exciting to have an awareness of how vital training, education and refinement of skills is to our work," she said.

Home-care worker Alice Redding, who also helped make the contract happen, said that in 1999, before home-care workers unionized, the base pay was less than $5 an hour for most workers - and many depended on food stamps and other programs.

"Earning a living wage is so important," she said. "It means a difference of surviving or living in poverty. Now, we'll be making a decent wage and we'll be able to have a little less struggle."

The contract would be reopened in 2017 to review future wage increases.


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