Organizers with the union that represents Oregon’s 20,000 state-supported home care workers are just a few weeks away from cinching a victory they say will make it possible for their industry to withstand a tidal wave of aging baby boomers expected to hit the state over the next 10 to 20 years.

Last week, SEIU Local 503’s home care bargaining team walked away from its most recent round of contract negotiations with a tentative deal that will give its members a 27.5 percent raise that the organization hopes will encourage more people to join their ranks.

“This is a huge shot in the arm,” said Rebecca Sandoval, a Medford-based home care worker who headed the union’s bargaining team. “We’ve just transformed the industry. We’ve made this job ~ a really attractive job.”

Representatives for the Oregon Home Care Commission, which serves as the union members’ employer of record, were equally pleased with the negotiations.

“Everybody gave a little bit,” said Jane-Ellen Weidenz, Medicaid long-term care system manager for the state’s Aging and People with Disabilities division and a member of the state’s bargaining committee. “Everybody got a little bit.”

Since 2000, SEIU Local 503 has represented the interests of home care workers who help elderly and disabled Oregon Health Plan recipients perform tasks such as preparing meals, taking medications, getting dressed and using the bathroom.

The state health plan pays these workers — some of whom work with clients who must make a co-payment to help cover the cost of their services — under the terms of a contract the nine-member Oregon Home Care Commission works out with the union every two years.

The most recent round of negotiations started in January and ended when the two sides came up with their draft contract agreement last week. SEIU spokeswoman Jill Bakken said that contract agreement is being mailed to the union’s members today so they can give it a final up or down vote.

“We’re pretty sure no one is going to turn this deal down,” Sandoval said, explaining that because of the union’s size it could take a few weeks for its members to cast their ballots.

Sandoval said one reason she’s certain the contract will pass is because it increases the home care workers’ base pay rate, which is the amount they are paid when they actively tend to a client’s needs, from $10.20 an hour to $13.00 an hour on Oct. 1 and $13.75 an hour on Jan. 1, 2015.

It also increases the workers’ self-management or on-call pay rates from $4.55 an hour to $6.55 an hour. Home care workers assigned to people who need 24-hour care earn this wage when they are not actively helping their clients perform activities of daily living. These two raises are expected to cost the state $115 million, Weidenz said, adding that the figure was included in the state’s budget for the coming biennium.

Sandoval said these two pay raises are significant because under the current pay structure some home care workers end up earning less than minimum wage for the total amount of time they spend with their clients. When combined with the physical and mental stresses associated with being a caregiver, Sandoval said, these low pay rates have given her profession a 300 percent turnover rate and made it very difficult to attract new recruits.

These high turnover rates raise a big red flag given estimates by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that 65 percent of the people who reach 65 – a milestone the country’s 79 million boomers started hitting two years ago – will need some type of home care services before they die. Most home care workers are also women in their 50s and are getting ready to retire themselves, Sandoval said.

“What we’re trying to do is ensure the health of this program,” Sandoval said as she explained the importance of the union’s contract negotiations in an earlier interview. “We want to make sure this is a profession people will want because you can support yourself doing it.”

Other provisions in the draft contract agreement allow union members to get health insurance benefits if they work only 40 hours a month and a 3.75 percent cost of living adjustment that comes in addition to the base pay wage increases.

The draft contract also requires home care workers to attend four paid training sessions each year if they want to be featured on a home care worker registry OHP recipients can use to pick the caregiver who is right for them.

“We felt (these trainings) were more than a fair trade-off,” Sandoval said, explaining the union actually supported these trainings, as long as they were paid, because it could improve the care its members could give to their clients.