The caregivers of developemntally disabled (DD) adults, aka "job coaches" and "direct support staff", work with a population that has extremely challenging behaviors. Many barely earn minimum wage, are treated as disposable by management and can be suspended and subsequently fired because of a client's fabrication!  A grievance system and arbitration would be appealing as impoved benefits and wages. Yet in my 3.5  years in this field I have yet to encounter--or even hear of--a unionized day program or group home. The question is, why not?

And there are several other advantages to organiziing these workers:

1. ACCESS. They are not confined to a single spot like, say, a manufacturing job. Job coaches go into the community with their clients four times a week, either by public transportation or in a van. An organizer could get a day pass from the local transit authority and ride around from mid-morning to early afternoon meeting and talking to job coaches from a number of programs without them having to worry about the meddlesome eye of management. Or, they could go to the popular sites--Farmers Markets, Aquarium of the Pacfic and especially bowling alleys--and simply wait for them to arrive.
2. NO OUTSOURCING. The day programs and group homes are located near where the clients and their relatives live. Relocating to the Maquiladoras or Indonesia isn't an option like it is for companies that manufacture a product.
3. GROWING FIELD. There are at least 40 day programs and countless group homes in the LA/Long Beach (CA) harbor area. It may even be closer to 50 as one large company (SVS) has opened new programs in Torrance and Carson. This number doesn't include the entire South Bay, never mind southern California.

It would behoove some union to take a long, hard look at these fertile grounds.