1999-2008: UDW caregivers win our collective bargaining rights and transform our union to one for caregivers by caregivers. We also win direct deposit for our IHSS paychecks!

2009: UDW stops Governor Schwarzeneggar’s attempt to decrease the state’s contribution to our wages and benefits and put unfair limits on who can receive car

2010: Together we stop Governor Schwarzeneggar from eliminating IHSS entirely.

2011: 

• We also win legislation that both ends timesheet fingerprint requirements, and requires counties to give us our background check results and appeals information.
• We successfully urge lawmakers to protect IHSS by finding new funding when Governor Brown tries to end certain vital services and cut recipient hours by 12%

2012:  UDW and home care advocates file lawsuits to stop Governor Brown’s proposed 20% cut to IHSS.

2013: 

• We settle three lawsuits – putting an end to massive IHSS cuts proposed by both governors in 2009 and 2012. The settlement includes a one-year 8% cut, and an ongoing 7% cut.
• The U.S. Department of Labor updates the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to extend overtime pay to home care workers after decades of exclusion.

2014: We block Governor Brown’s attempt to limit provides to 40 hours per week and avoid paying us overtime. 

2015: 

• UDW caregivers successfully end the 7% cut to our client’s hours for one year.
• After months of intense pressure by UDW caregivers, the state announces that overtime, travel time, and medical wait time pay will begin February 2016.
• UDW wins legislation requiring training for law enforcement on how to better interact with people with mental illness, intellectual disabilities, and substance abuse disorders – keeping people with disabilities safer in our communities.

 

2016:

• Once again, we stop the 7% cut – this time through 2019
• UDW caregivers fight alongside other low-wage workers for a law that increases California’s minimum wage to $15 by 2022, and gives providers paid sick leave for the first time ever.
• We take action to fix the broken IHSS payroll system. We win a state-level audit of the problems causing paycheck and timesheet delays, and pressure the state to implement optional electronic timesheets starting in 2017

 

As of the first of the year, the minimum wage in California has increased from $10 to $10.50 an hour. This increase is the first of many as the state’s minimum wage gradually goes up to $15 an hour. Read more here.

UDW caregivers in 14 counties including Alpine, Butte, Kern, Madera, Merced, Mono, Nevada, Orange, Plumas, San Diego, Sierra, Stanislaus, Sutter, and Tuolumne counties will see an improvement in our IHSS pay as a result of the new, higher minimum wage.

The minimum wage increase is no coincidence. UDW caregivers worked with other low wage workers to convince elected leaders to raise the wage, and lift California families out of poverty. And we won!

The minimum wage is scheduled to reach $15 by 2022, and in addition, the plan includes paid sick days for IHSS providers for the first time in history starting in 2018.

We will continue to celebrate this victory for working families, but we will not be complacent. UDW caregivers must continue to fight for more than minimum wage, because in-home care should not be a minimum wage job. The work we do is worth far more. That’s why UDW caregivers went All In for Care in 2016. We recommitted ourselves to the fight for wage and benefit improvements in UDW counties throughout the state, which you can read about here.

Click here to contact your local UDW office and find out how you too can go All In for Care.

Remember, no one IHSS provider can do it alone! Click here to join our work to increase IHSS provider pay in your county by becoming a member of UDW today.

UDW caregivers are working hard to win better wages and benefits for IHSS providers around the state, because our families need and deserve more. Not to mention, our work is worth more than low pay or minimum wage. We do work that is priceless to our clients and cost saving to our communities, so we’re fighting for a living wage together.

Going All In for Care means we are fighting for better pay and benefits for IHSS providers.

In San Diego, Riverside, and Orange counties we’re working together to negotiate an IHSS contract that will improve the lives of providers and our families. Unfortunately, the state believes our work is only worth minimum wage, and they want to keep IHSS providers at low wages and weak benefits. At the bargaining table, they have proposed a contract that would pay providers in San Diego and Orange counties minimum wage for at least the next three years, and would deny providers in Riverside a raise until 2019.

Our UDW contract proposal would raise our wages immediately, and give IHSS providers better health care and paid time off.

But instead of meeting with UDW caregivers again soon so that we can come to a fair agreement, the state has put off the next round of negotiations until late October.

In addition to San Diego, Riverside, and Orange counties, we’re fighting for better wages in multiple counties around the state. Call your local UDW office to find out how you can get involved and go All In for Care.

It’s Labor Day weekend. For many Americans that means a three-day weekend to eat barbecue and enjoy the last days of summer with loved ones, but Labor Day represents a lot more. As we go All In for Care at the bargaining table to win better pay and benefits for caregivers, we should keep in mind the history of the holiday.

Labor Day was created by union members in the late 1800s to recognize the contributions workers have made to building our country, and making it prosperous. Home care workers and other domestic workers have cared for our nation’s seniors and people with disabilities for decades, even centuries. Our work keeps this country moving forward by ensuring that those who need it have access to the quality care they deserve. The care we provide allows people to age with dignity, and allows individuals with disabilities to receive care at home rather than institutions.

It’s important to recognize the achievements and value of workers, but to also remember that some workers, including home care providers remain undervalued and underappreciated. Labor Day became a national holiday in 1896, but IHSS providers still work without paid holidays. And until last year, we’d endured decades of exclusion from the Fair Labor Standards Act, which gave most workers overtime pay benefits almost 80 years ago.

UDW caregiver William Reed from Placer County provides care for his adult son who lives with autism. William recently spoke out about the need to treat IHSS providers with the same respect as other workers. “Our work is real work,” he said. “It’s time to make a change, and start treating the work of all home care providers with dignity and respect.”

It’s true, and UDW caregivers have had to fight for many of the same basic rights most workers enjoy automatically. Whether it’s securing overtime, stopping cuts to the IHSS program, or helping raise the state’s minimum wage; we have proved that when we fight together, we can win!

Marcus Haynes is an IHSS provider in Riverside County. He provides care for his uncle who lives with schizophrenia. Marcus is also a member of the bargaining team that includes other UDW members from Riverside, as well as San Diego and Orange counties. Providers in those counties are currently in contract negotiations with the state in an effort to win better pay and benefits for IHSS providers in all three counties. “Some of us do the same work as nurses, but we don’t make a living wage,” said Marcus. “Bargaining together gives us all a voice in the process to improve our wages.”

Marcus and the bargaining team are fighting for an immediate raise, improved health care, paid sick leave, and vacation time. However, the state continues to devalue our work. The state’s contract proposal includes keeping providers at minimum wage with no raise, and no improvements to our benefits.

We will continue to fight, because we are All In for Care! Whether you are bargaining with the state, or

your county’s public authority, we must all continue to unite together to win more for our families. Darlene Nelson who works as an IHSS provider for her two adult daughters recently spoke out about not settling for low wages and poor benefits at a rally in San Diego. “Our work and our clients’ care is worth far more than the minimum,” she said. “I’m all in for care!”

This Labor Day weekend and beyond, if you are All In for Care, call 1-866-584-5792, and tell your lawmaker to support pay and benefit increases for IHSS providers.

For Immediate Release
Thursday, August 18, 2016

Contact: Margitte Kristjansson, 619-548-4304

An estimated 10,000 home care workers in San Diego are now making less than minimum wage.

San Diego – Today local In-Home Supportive Services program (IHSS) home care workers, members of the United Domestic Workers/AFSCME Local 3930 (UDW), rallied in front of the City Treasurer’s office to shed light on the wage theft being committed in San Diego. IHSS home care workers provide in-home care for seniors and people with disabilities, saving the state money by allowing people to remain in their homes instead of costly institutions.

Proposition I, which was passed by San Diego voters in June, increased the city’s minimum wage from $10 to $10.50 per hour. But IHSS home care providers were denied the minimum wage increase through a decision by the state of California.

“When I saw my first IHSS check after the increase to $10.50 an hour went into effect in July, I was shocked and upset,” Darlene Nelson, a UDW member and an IHSS home care provider for her two adult daughters who live with developmental disabilities, told the crowd. “When I learned IHSS providers had been left out of the increase because of an unfair decision by the state, I felt like my work was not being valued.”

The state’s response to inquiries of why it is denying home care providers the local minimum wage has been that it cannot be compelled to follow our local laws. “Why should we be left out?” Nicanora Montenegro, an IHSS provider for her 47-year-old sister who lives with intellectual disabilities, asked the crowd. “We are all San Diegans. We live in San Diego…They raised the wage to $10.50 and we’re left at $10 only – What do you call that? Wage theft!”

After the rally five IHSS home care workers marched into the city treasurer’s office to submit formal letters of complaint against the state. They called on the city to hold the state accountable for its wage theft, and to demand they enforce our laws and pay workers fairly.

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United Domestic Workers of America (UDW)/AFSCME Local 3930 is a home care union made up of nearly 94,000 in-home caregivers across the state of California. UDW caregivers provide care through the state’s In-Home Supportive Services program (IHSS), which allows over half a million California seniors and people with disabilities to stay safe and healthy at home.

By Editha Adams, UDW President and IHSS provider

For the past year UDW caregivers have rallied and marched alongside thousands of underpaid workers to make one thing clear: no one should have to survive on less than $15 per hour in California.

And we won! On April 4, 2016 we were there when Governor Jerry Brown signed a historic $15 minimum wage into law.

The law also guarantees paid sick leave for IHSS workers for the first time ever: the first in 2018, the second in 2020, and the third and final day in 2022. It will also increase California’s current
minimum wage by one dollar over the next two years, and then by a dollar for each year thereafter until reaching $15 per hour in 2022.

This victory will have a huge impact on the more than 400,000 IHSS providers statewide who currently earn, on average, just $10.72 an hour – and many will start to see an increase in wages as early as 2017, when the minimum wage goes up to $10.50.

But we have more work to do, because home care providers deserve to earn more than minimum wage! That’s why we’re bargaining at the county and state-levels to win better wages and benefits for UDW home care providers now, and working together to protect the home care program for our clients and loved ones.

April 4, 2016

Today, we took a big step forward in our fight for justice for home care workers and families. Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 3 (SB 3), which creates a plan to raise California’s minimum wage incrementally to $15 by 2022, and provides all workers with paid sick days.

“We must bring balance to an unbalanced system,” said the governor minutes before he signed the bill.

For home care providers, including UDW’s 92,000 IHSS workers, this new law will have a monumental impact. Currently, we make on average just $10.71 an hour, and work without any paid sick time. Many of us struggle to provide for our families and often work even when we’re sick, because we can’t afford an unpaid day off.

“It’s tough for me to afford groceries, my prescriptions, and even gas for my car to drive to each of my clients,” said El Dorado home care worker Lisa Scott. “I’ve done this job for over a decade, and I’ve never taken a paid sick day.”

Today’s victory is a direct result of providers like Lisa and UDW caregivers across the state joining with other underpaid workers to demand more for ourselves and our families.

A few years back, UDW members stood alongside fast food workers, adjunct professors, retail workers, and more in the Fight for $15. We raised our voices in marches and rallies from San Diego to the Capitol. “All home care workers need to fight for $15, because we deserve better,” said UDW member Gabriel Paramo from San Diego.

And our elected leaders heard us. Late last month, our constant demands for justice caused the governor and legislators to work with unions to come up with a plan to raise millions of working families out of poverty by raising the minimum wage.

When that plan was voted on by the state Senate and Assembly last week, UDW members were there to make sure it passed. “No one who works full time should live in poverty,” said Stanislaus County UDW member Lidia Rodriguez just before the Assembly passed SB 3, and moved it on to the Senate.

When the bill finally passed the Senate and made its way to the governor’s desk, Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de Leon told naysayers, “Anyone who thinks $15 an hour is way too much should try living on it.”

All of our hard work culminated in a celebration today in Los Angeles, when Governor Brown, surrounded by UDW home care providers and other workers, signed this landmark legislation.

“We didn’t sit back and wait,” said Riverside County IHSS provider Kady Crick. “We fought for this! And now we’re seeing the fruits of our hard work.”

The new law will raise California’s minimum wage to $10.50 an hour on January 1, 2017, and then to $11 an hour on January 1, 2018. After that, the minimum wage will increase by $1 every year until it reaches $15. Once it reaches $15, it will be raised annually with increases in inflation. The minimum wage is expected to reach $15 by 2022, if there are no pauses triggered by a slow economy or a budget deficit.

It is estimated that nearly six million workers in California, or over one-third of the workforce will receive a raise – including thousands of UDW members.

Under the new law, IHSS workers will receive one paid sick day starting July 2018, with three paid sick days to be implemented by 2022.

Although we celebrate this amazing achievement by workers, our work is not done yet. The work we do for seniors and people with disabilities deserves more than minimum wage. That’s why UDW caregivers will continue to bargain at both the county and state level for better wages and benefits NOW.

Contact your local UDW office to learn how you can join our fight for justice – http://www.udwa.org/contact.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, March 28, 2016
Contact: Eli Magaña, [email protected], 619-252-0397

Statement from UDW Executive Director Doug Moore on Governor Brown’s proposal to raise the state minimum wage and provide paid sick time to home care workers:

“No Californian who works full-time should be living in poverty. And yet, low-wage workers across the state are struggling to make ends meet. Caregivers for the state’s In-Home Supportive Services program (IHSS) make on average just $10.71 an hour. They work long hours to ensure that seniors and Californians with disabilities get the quality care they need, but at the end of the day many are unable to pay all of their bills and put food on the table for their families—and without paid sick leave, they are often forced to go to work sick, putting their clients and loved ones at risk.

That’s why UDW home care providers have been on the front lines in the Fight for $15 alongside fast food workers, child care providers, janitors, educators, and other underpaid workers.

We urge lawmakers to swiftly pass legislation that will uplift millions of hardworking Californians and their families. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and giving all workers paid sick days is not just a matter of policy—it’s about doing what’s right.”

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United Domestic Workers of America (UDW)/AFSCME Local 3930 is a homecare union made up of over 92,000 in-home caregivers across the state of California. UDW caregivers provide care through the state’s In-Home Supportive Services program (IHSS), which allows hundreds of thousands of seniors and people with disabilities to stay safe and healthy at home.