Factually! with Adam Conover How 30,000 People Formed an Impossible Union, with Ethan Bakuli and Rodney Tate
Apr 8, 2026
Ethan Bakuli, a reporter who covered the Michigan home care workers campaign, provides journalistic context. Rodney Tate, a longtime home care worker and organizer, shares first‑hand caregiving and organizing experience. They recount how 30,000 dispersed caregivers organized without shared workplaces. Conversation covers tactics like door‑knocking and social outreach, the legal fight for employee status, and what bargaining priorities come next.
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Decades Caring For Family While Getting Paid Pennies
- Rodney has been a paid home care worker for about 25 years caring for close relatives including his brother and mother.
- He described intimate duties like bathing, moving clients, and constant decline, and said he earned only about $500 a month for full caregiving.
Organizing Workers Who Never Share A Workplace
- Home care workers lack ordinary workplace ties which makes traditional organizing harder because they don't share a common physical workplace.
- SEIU overcame that by recruiting, training leaders like Rodney, and creating new meeting points and visibility across the state.
Door Knocking A 30,000 Person Workforce Statewide
- The campaign combined door knocking, phone banking, social media, events, and Capitol demonstrations to reach tens of thousands across Michigan.
- SEIU received the state registry of home care workers and used it to target outreach statewide, including rural Upper Peninsula communities.
