What’s at stake?
IHSS workers provide in-home care to over 25,000 people in Fresno County, more than 40% of whom are adults with disabilities and almost half of whom are elderly. Workers say they provide a vital service to these populations and need better wages to combat turnover.
Over 23,000 workers in Fresno County are seeking raises to $20 an hour for their work caring for the county’s aging population and people with disabilities – and they’re hoping the upcoming election will help reshape the negotiation battlefield after a year of bargaining.
Fresno County’s In-Home Supportive Services program serves over 25,000 local people as of December. The program allows recipients to live “safely and independently” in their homes instead of at other facilities like nursing homes, according to the county.
Fresno’s IHSS workers currently get paid $16.60 for this work, which is 60 cents above California’s minimum wage.
IHSS providers said they struggle to make ends meet with the current pay – and that recipients of the care also suffer the consequences when an IHSS worker leaves their job for better wages.
“A living wage is all these workers want,” said Dereck Smith, executive vice president of SEIU Local 2015 which represents Fresno County’s IHSS workers. “To get them to a wage of $20 is not a huge ask.”
He added that increasing pay is also the way to “improve care in this county and across the state.”
Fresno County’s latest offer was for a $1.20 raise, which county leaders emphasize will put IHSS workers’ pay $1.80 above California’s minimum wage.
The union criticized the county’s proposal not only for being too low but also for cutting the health benefit contribution Fresno County currently pays, which provides just over 2,200 IHSS workers with the Kaiser Permanente “Silver” plan.
Meanwhile, SEIU has received support for their proposed $20 per hour raise from some candidates running for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors in the March primary, which workers hope will help turn the tide in their favor after over a year of bargaining with the county.
The union’s demands
Local care workers told Fresnoland they do taxing, one-on-one work with vulnerable patients and wish the county valued that work more.
More than 40% of IHSS recipients are adults with disabilities and 47% are 65 or older, county spokesperson Sonja Dosti said in an email Feb. 15.
Yolanda Gonzales cares for an 81-year-old woman with diabetes and an amputated foot.
On a typical day, Gonzales said she cleans her recipient’s sheets which are often soiled, helps her shower, dries her hair, makes her breakfast, and gives her medication.
She cares for her “like she was my mom or an aunt or a family member,” Gonzales said.
Many other IHSS workers provide care for their own family members, including Mary Schluter.
Her daughter Ellisia has Down syndrome and is functionally nonverbal.
“The fact that she cannot communicate if she’s being neglected or abused is one of the reasons I need to be on board,” she said. “There are so many recipients … with that problem.”
That’s what makes reducing turnover especially important among IHSS workers, she added.
“This is the thing you lose when there’s high turnover. You lose people who have the intuition, who really know the person they’re taking care of.
“They know when something’s off, when something’s not right with that person.”
What Fresno County has offered IHSS workers in bargaining
Schluter said the county’s most recent wage proposal of an additional $1.20 “does not match the services we provide” and fears it won’t slow turnover.
To pay for the raise, the county has also proposed a cut to the fund that helps over 2,000 IHSS workers receive Kaiser Permanente medical benefits, citing recent expansions to Medi-Cal eligibility.
“Providers who are currently receiving benefits through the Union plan can select the same plan and avoid any doctor and service changes if they qualify for health coverage through Medi-Cal or Covered California,” said Oralia Gomez, executive director of the Public Authority of Fresno County, in a copy of the county’s Jan. 26 proposal to SEIU, shared with Fresnoland.
The union has taken issue with that explanation, however.
“These are already low-wage workers that they’re trying to keep in poverty,” Smith said, “but by putting them on a (government-assisted) program with their healthcare.”
Schluter, who currently depends on the Kaiser benefits for managing diabetes and severe sleep apnea, said she doesn’t qualify for MediCal and would have to purchase a likely more expensive, private policy.
What Fresno County Board of Supervisors election candidates have said about IHSS workers’ wages
IHSS workers are eyeing the Fresno County Board of Supervisors candidates this year, seeking support for their contract proposals.
However, unlike in past elections, SEIU as a whole didn’t ultimately endorse any Fresno County Board of Supervisor candidates ahead of the March primary, according to SEIU leadership.
Three seats on the board – the District 2 seat held by Steve Brandau, the District 3 seat held by Sal Quintero, and the District 5 seat held by board chairman Nathan Magsig – are on the ballot next month. Each incumbent faces one or more challengers in their reelection bid.
At a Fresnoland election forum Feb. 12, all four candidates in the District 3 race said they would support a $20/hour wage for IHSS workers.
Quintero said he’s been on board, and that his message to IHSS workers has always been, “Find me two more votes.”
Fresnoland reached out to Brandau and Magsig on Tuesday, asking whether they’d support a $20/hour raise for IHSS workers.
Brandau’s chief of staff, Robert Jeffers, said the supervisor couldn’t comment on “ongoing negotiations.” Magsig could not immediately be reached for comment.
Smith of SEIU said the next bargaining session with Fresno County hadn’t been scheduled as of Feb. 12 and that the “ball is in their court” in terms of coming up with another proposal.
IHSS workers’ next rally is planned for Mar. 19, SEIU organizer James Hill said.
