While members and leaders throughout SEIU-UHW stand together for Fresno home care workers, members and bargaining teams in other facilities are continuing their fights to protect jobs and win new contracts.
"We need to show management that we're united with a strong vote for SEIU-UHW in the upcoming election," said the elected bargaining team at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital in Hollister. The team and UHW members, some 160 strong, have shown such determination that the outsiders sought to delay the mail-ballot election they had called for, starting June 4.
Sacramento Home care Workers' Pay, Healthcare Guaranteed
The members of the SEIU-UHW bargaining team representing home care workers in Sacramento County are lauding an agreement with the County that will guarantee current wages and healthcare benefits in the face of economic distress. County officials have worked with the union to offset losses in local revenue with federal stimulus funds to assure no loss of pay for home care workers.
"This is a perfect example of what we can accomplish when our union and local officials work together," said SEIU-UHW bargaining committee member and home care worker Martha Cobos. "This decision means that those who care for society's most vulnerable will be able to keep doing this important work."
The current wage for home care workers in Sacramento County is $10.40 an hour, plus $.70 for benefits. All across the state, politicians - including the governor - have threatened to slash home care pay and benefits to make up for losses in state and local tax revenue. SEIU-UHW has maintained that the federal stimulus money is designed to offset exactly this kind of deficit, and Sacramento officials agree.
"This is the model for all county officials and the state government to follow," said SEIU-UHW Trustee Eliseo Medina. "The wrong place to cut costs is on the backs of home care workers, for both moral and financial reasons. Remember, home care saves vital taxpayer money that would otherwise be spent on more costly institutional care and unemployment for displaced workers."
In another positive development for County home care workers, County officials have agreed to work to settle a new contract for home care workers well before the November 30 expiration date. Negotiations are scheduled to begin in late July and SEIU-UHW bargainers are optimistic that a progressive contract is possible.
Hazel Hawkins: More than 100 workers say "We vote SEIU-UHW!"
In Hollister, more than 150 UHW members at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital are casting votes in a PERB election. A rival organization, called NUHW, pushed for the election and then tried to delay it.
This past week, 107 members throughout the hospital publicly supported SEIU-UHW on a "vote-yes" leaflet that reached all members the same day as their ballots. On May 29, several members stood together in demanding that the head of the rival group leave the hospital rather than continue to spread falsehoods about their union or the true impact of the pending vote.
Also last week, on June 1, the elected bargaining committee pressed forward with negotiations for a new contract. They stood up against management's proposal to make personnel decisions based on personalities or other non-merit-based factors. They framed their fight on members' behalf as favoritism vs. fairness. "We need to show management that we?re united with a strong vote for SEIU-UHW in the upcoming election," team members said in a joint statement.
John Muir: Unity is Strength
At John Muir Medical Center in Concord, UHW members hope to build on the recent victory at Alameda Hospital, where members overcame divisions, rejected false claims by outsiders, and won a new contract with 18 percent pay increases.
The message is simple, says SEIU-UHW steward Dave Hoff: "Unity is strength." He has joined many of the more than 400 members at John Muir in signing petitions to elect a negotiating team to bargain and win a new contract. Members at Children's Hospital Oakland, where management cancelled contract extensions in early May, are also eager to negotiate. "We need to come together and get to the table now," said member Tonya Jay, who felt firsthand the power of the union after winning a recent grievance. "With unity, we can be successful."
In addition to SEIU-UHW members' fight for a new contract at Hazel Hawkins in Hollister (while also seeking to win a decert. vote), and the fight by members at John Muir in Concord, members at 2 other hospitals in the Bay Area are also pressing for new contracts:
Washington Hospital (Fremont) members tell management: The countdown is on!
At Washington Hospital in Fremont, members recently cheered a state complaint against the hospital for colluding with outsiders seeking to undermine the union. The bargaining committee keeps up its drive for a new contract covering more than 400 members. "We grow as a team. We succeed as a team. When we work together to win our new contract, it will help all of us get the benefits we've waited so long for," said members Melissa Pirtle and Fiji Evangelista.
A delegation from the union recently spoke with the hospital's board in their call for more dates for negotiations. Members do not want to go more than one year without a contract, which will happen on July 1, and are pressing for more dates for bargaining in June. A local Assemblymember attended the meeting with the SEIU-UHW delegation out of concern at the slow pace of bargaining at the hospital.
Children's Hospital (Oakland)
Children's Hospital Oakland members also want to get back to the table with management, which at the beginning of May refused to extend their contract. The stories of SEIU-UHW members in other hospitals, including Compass Group workers at Enloe Hospital in Chico, who are winning raises and retroactive pay in the new contracts they negotiated is spurring them on.
Sutter Update: Unity & Action = The Contract We Want
SEIU-UHW Members have nine separate contracts at Sutter. Member Bargaining Teams are currently negotiating at Alta Bates, CPMC, Delta and Roseville. Amador and Solano will be resuming negotiations in June. Santa Rosa, Eden and Lakeside are forming Member Bargaining Teams. Roseville workers were the first to re-start negotiations and are taking the lead on the #1 issue for all Members: Job Security and sub-contracting.
Sutter is seeking to weaken our sub-contracting protections so that they can regionalize/consolidate services. This would allow them to move jobs to non-union facilities where wages/benefits can be stripped because workers are not protected by a contract. Sutter has proposals for all nine contracts that put our job security at risk, making it critical for all of us to unite system-wide and negotiate at the same time. In Roseville, the SEIU-UHW Member Bargaining Team has confronted management repeatedly and will continue to tackle this issue until receiving answers.
Alta Bates negotiations: Health care, Overtime & Reclassification Central Issues
On May 20th, our SEIU-UHW Member Bargaining Team resumed negotiations at Alta Bates for the first time since January with newly-elected and returning members. Like all SEIU-UHW Members at Sutter, our contract expired in June, 2008, and we have been working without a contract since October, 2008. We have had two sessions and have spent most of that time reviewing proposals.
It is clear that like Roseville, sub-contracting will be a major issue. Other central issues will be take-aways on overtime, re-classification, and health insurance. Management's current "Health & Wellness" proposal could result in changes to coverage at a likely future cost to members. However, management clarified that there is no June 14th deadline, and our existing health plan will remain unchanged until an agreement is reached.
Families, Consumers of Home Care Impacted by Budget Cuts to Hold Noon Vigil During Fresno Board of Supervisors Meeting
Representatives and supporters of the more than 12,000 families who rely on In-Home Support Services to care for elderly or disabled loved ones will hold a vigil on Tuesday at noon out side of the Fresno Board of Supervisors meeting as the clock ticks down to the July 1st deadline for dangerous home care cuts to go into effect. Clients and family members fear that the lower wages will force workers to find new jobs forcing their loved ones into institutions.
Carlos Martinez whose 29-year old wife is recovering from a diabetic coma, said in court filings "I am very concerned that I will be unable to replace my wife's IHSS providers if they quit. I do not know how I would provide the care that she needs in order to remain at home if I could not find IHSS providers for all of my wife's authorized hours. I am very worried about the possibility that I might have to put my wife in some kind of institutional care if I could not replace her IHSS providers."
In Sacramento County, unlike Fresno, officials chose to work with the union to offset losses in local revenue with federal stimulus funds to assure no loss of pay for home care workers. SEIU-UHW and Sacramento County reached an agreement, announced today, that guarantees current wages and healthcare benefits in the face of economic distress.
Last week SEIU filed for a emergency injunction to stop the cuts from going into effect on July 1st. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of individual consumers and SEIU, and argues that the planned cuts put seniors and people with disabilities at risk and violate the American with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and federal Medicaid Law.
WHO: Consumer, clients and family members of the elderly and disabled
WHERE: Fresno County Hall of Records, 2281 Tulare, Fresno
WHEN: Tuesday, June 9 at NOON
VISUALS: Participants signing a large-size postcard to County Board of Supervisors, signs, banners