Mendocino County In-Home Support Service providers to get higher wages, training

After some grueling negotiations, the Mendocino County In-Home Support Service (IHSS) Bargaining Team won the opportunity to ratify a contract that will continue to raise their wages and keep the wage at least $1 above minimum wage. Among other benefits, the new contract will also create a $5,000 training fund in order to develop and run trainings on a variety of IHSS-related topics. The tentative agreement is for a contract lasting through Dec. 31, 2022, at which time negotiations will begin again.

In order for the agreement to go in effect, IHSS members must vote to approve it. Last week, members of the union negotiating team and representatives from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) set up at the Willits Integrated Services Center (as well as locations in Ukiah and Fort Bragg) and invited local IHSS providers to come down and vote. The deadline to vote is Monday, Dec. 2 and a vote count party will be held from 4-6 p.m.Tuesday, Dec. 3 at the SEIU office located in Ukiah at 655 Kings Court. Once the votes are in and counted, an official ‘Union Victory Celebration’ will take place from 3:30-5:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20 at Brickhouse Coffee in Willits. Family and clients are welcome. Food and drink will be provided. To RSVP, call or text (707) 617-0129, or visit http://tiny.cc/seiu.

The Bargaining Team was comprised of members Consuelo Rocha, Juana Santacruz, Bertha Cristina More, Beverly Galten, Sheila Dawn Tracy, Debra Bryant and Priscilla Tarver. The main goals of the new contract include building a stronger program for providers, customers and families through higher wages, improved benefits and protecting the rights of the workers. More specifically, the new contract proposes the Mendocino County IHSS Public Authority (“the Public Authority”) provide the IHSS Union with $5,000 annually to develop and run trainings on various topics such as universal precautions, infection control, CPR, basic first aid, proper lifting techniques, symptoms of a heart attack/stroke/diabetic coma, and working with patients who suffer from dementia/Alzheimer’s/mental health issues/autism.

Additionally, the new contract would provide for a IHSS registry as well as union representation as necessary. Regarding health and safety, the contract would require the Public Authority to continue to make available standard gloves and sanitizing wipes at no charge to providers and consumers who request the supplies. Also included in the agreement is a process for faster enrollment which would require the Public Authority to provide access to time sheets/e-time sheets no later than 30 calendar days from the provider completing the enrollment requirements. The last request made in the contract states that the union be given the opportunity to make a presentation at the beginning of new provider orientations, instead of at the end of the orientation.

Debra Bryant is the chair for local IHSS advisory committee and a member of the bargaining committee. “We need the members to vote ‘yes’, that they accept this contract, and we have to get it back to the board of supervisors before Dec. 3. And, everybody is voting yes because they want the dollar raise and they want the training that they’ve given us money to be able to do professional training for the providers… The other thing we are trying to do is to get people who are non union members to sign up be union members because the higher percentage of union members that we have, the louder it speaks.”

As a member of the bargaining team, Bryant said the main goal was to educate the Board of Supervisors so that the next time negotiations come around, they’ll have a better understanding. “Because they really had a lack of understanding how the finances work in order to fund the money for the providers. I think they really had a hard time grasping that… We have probably a more complicated system than other do when they go in for bargaining because we are federally, state and county funded,” said Bryant.

She added that because of the lack of how the system works and lack of local IHSS providers, “There is over 200,000 hours not worked here in Mendocino County. That’s money lost to the county because if that was being paid to providers, the providers would spend a lot of that money here in this county. So, they’re losing it.”