More than 30,000 home care workers from SEIU-UHW and ULTCW joined a historic tele-townhall this past Monday to talk about the 20% hours cut to In-Home Supportive Services and to share new ideas for home care reform in 2012.
Dave Regan, president of UHW and Laphonza Butler, president of ULTCW hosted the townhall, leading with a discussion on the automatic 20 percent spending cut that could hit IHSS consumers next month.
Special guest Stacey Leyton, lead attorney in our current lawsuit against the state’s trigger cut to home care hours, addressed members’ concerns. She reassured in-home caregivers that the state is not allowed to cut consumers’ hours “until the court has a full hearing on whether the cuts are legal.” The full hearing on the cuts is set for January 19th in Oakland, California.
Dave Regan segued into a talk about the broken state of the home care system in California. “We’re at a pivotal point in our history,” said Regan. “We can either keep things going the way they are or we can step up and fix the problem.” That problem, Regan pointed out, is the fact that in-home supportive services is consistently on the chopping block every year leaving the state’s most vulnerable are left to fend for themselves.
Looking forward to 2012 and beyond, Laphonza Butler acknowledged that “more of the same” isn’t desired and reviewed three policy recommendations formed as a result of thousands of conversations between in-home caregivers to build a better future for home care.
The first policy recommendation is to secure dedicated funding for the IHSS program that would not be subject to budget cuts. Next would be a policy that expands workers’ roles into managing the health of consumers and to be trained to carry out that work. The final policy recommendation discussed was to create one consistent, higher standard for all home care workers by unifying all home care contracts so that workers negotiate with one employer, the state.
When asked, thousands said they would be willing to take action to support and move those recommendations forward.
Right now, a lawsuit we filed with other home care unions and disability rights groups is keeping the state from going forward with the hours cut. With the threat of the 20 percent budget cut looming, in-home caregivers are getting prepared to protect themselves and their clients.