Home health workers vote to join union

The state's home healthcare aides have overwhelmingly voted in favor of joining the powerful Service Employees International Union. Of the 22,000 home healthcare workers in Massachusetts, about 6,600 mailed in ballots, union officials said, with 94 percent of them voting to organize.

The vote allows 1199SEIU to negotiate with the state in an effort to improve wages and benefits for the workers, who are paid through the state's Medicaid program, Mass Health. Union officials said the next step is to set up a bargaining committee. They hope schedule a meeting with the state within a month.

Home healthcare aides are hired by individual patients or family members, and perform such tasks as bathing, feeding, and cooking. A state law passed last year allowed them to be recognized as a bargaining unit.

With more than 300,000 workers and retirees, 1199SEIU claims to be the largest union local in the world. With the addition of the home healthcare workers, it now has about 177,000 members in New England, including healthcare and child-care workers, and those who work for universities and in the public sector.

SEIU is also in the midst of a push to organize workers at Boston's teaching hospitals, and union officials believe today's vote results will give that effort added momentum.

(By Mark Pothier, Globe staff)