This story was originally published by Fresnoland, a nonprofit news organization.
Service Employees International Union Local 2015 scored some of the biggest wins in Fresno County elections this November, but now comes the hard part: making their political victories pay off for workers – literally.
The union’s fight to preserve health care benefits and secure raises for the county’s roughly 25,000 In-Home Supportive Services (or IHSS) workers will hit the two-year mark in December.
But with contract talks stagnating over the past year, SEIU took that yearslong fight to the ballot box in November.
It backed the two challengers vying for seats of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, Garry Bredefeld and Luis Chavez.
Both challengers successfully unseated incumbents on the five-member board: Steve Brandau in District 2 and Sal Quintero in District 3.
The union believes the shakeup to the board will be enough to move the needle on contract talks.
“If we have two going in there that are on the side of workers and want to do what’s right by these workers,” said Dereck Smith, an executive vice president for SEIU Local 2015, “we are confident that we could get the vote of a third one to move our contract forward.”
But only one of the two incoming supervisors has committed to supporting a specific raise or benefit package for the workers.
In an interview with Fresnoland, Chavez said he supports a $25 to $30 hourly wage for IHSS workers – the upper half of which would nearly double their current wage of $16.60 an hour.
Bredefeld, on the other hand, told Fresnoland he wants to review the budget and other county employee contracts before landing on a specific hourly wage he would support.
“I think that’s the responsible thing to do, and that’s what I will do,” he said, “but I will make sure that they are treated with respect and dignity and given fair wages, which has not been the case for that union.”
In the meantime, negotiations continue to inch forward with the parties struggling over what wages and benefits will look like for the workers that care for roughly 24,000 elderly folks and people with disabilities in the county.
How did we get here?
IHSS workers’ most recent contract expired in December 2022.
Since then, SEIU has been fighting with the county over dollars and cents.
IHSS workers are paid the state or federal minimum wage – whichever is higher at a given point in time – plus a wage supplement. Currently, that supplement is 60 cents on top of the $16 state minimum wage.
SEIU’s most recent proposal sent in October asked to increase that supplement to $1.85 – which would bring wages to $17.85 an hour.
The county came back with a slightly bigger bump to the wage supplement, offering an increase to $18.25 an hour over three years in a November proposal.
However, that offer comes at the expense of the health benefit contribution the county currently pays for every hour a county caregiver works, which then goes toward union-provided health care for roughly 2,000 of the county’s more than 25,000 IHSS workers.
Preserving that benefit is the biggest sticking point for the union, Smith said.
“These are low-wage workers,” he said. “Some of them might have health care, based on their income, through Medicare, Medi-Cal – something like that. But a lot of them don’t have health care. For the ones that currently have health care through the union, you want to take that away? That’s ridiculous.”
The county’s counter-argument is that the health care contribution benefits “less than 1 in 10 IHSS providers,” while a bigger raise funded by cutting the contribution would bring benefits for every provider, Department of Social Services spokesperson Maurice Ndole said in an email Nov. 21.
“Most IHSS providers already qualify for Medi-Cal or Covered California under the expanded coverage program,” Ndole said, “which includes access to Kaiser Permanente, the union’s chosen health care provider.
“By redirecting funds to wages, every provider will see an immediate and tangible raise while maintaining access to affordable healthcare through Medi-Cal or Covered California.”
SEIU has criticized that logic, saying the county can’t guarantee all workers currently receiving union-provided healthcare will qualify for Medi-Cal.
It also pushed to not just preserve the health care contribution but boost it from 85 cents to $1 in its October proposal.
What have Bredefeld and Chavez said about IHSS workers?
In addition to supporting a wage hike that would almost double workers’ pay, Chavez said cutting the county health care contribution for IHSS workers is a “non-starter” for him.
“They really do need the resources to make sure, one, they’re healthy,” he said of the workers, “and, two, that they’re healthy enough to actually take care of people that are not healthy.”
As for how Fresno County could fund these raises and boosts to benefits, Chavez emphasized that the federal and state government cover the majority of wage increases for IHSS workers.
“The large majority of those salaries,” he said, “are actually paid by the federal government and the state government.”
IHSS programs across California are jointly funded by county, state and federal governments through a complex formula – though Fresno County staff have stressed that the state imposes caps on how much it will cover the cost of locally negotiated wage increases, depending on how far above minimum wage the hourly rate rises.
Bredefeld, meanwhile, didn’t provide a specific stance on the health care benefit issue.
“Again, it comes back to looking at the entirety of a contract,” he said, “and making sure that your employee is treated fairly. This is a group that has not been treated fairly.”
What’s next for contract negotiations with SEIU Local 2015?
The union sent its most recent proposal to the county Oct. 17. The county sent a counter-offer Nov. 14.
The county is now waiting for another response from the union before setting another bargaining session, Ndole said.
SEIU Local 2015 is no stranger to protracted battles for higher wages.
Its last contract took over four years to negotiate after years of tension and demonstrations before the Board of Supervisors, including one that resulted in the arrest of multiple workers as well as activist Dolores Huerta.
But that’s one thing both Bredefeld and Chavez have emphasized: that they want to get this done in a more timely manner than in the past.
“I think with Supervisor-elect Chavez and I coming on board,” Bredefeld said, “we have a history with the City of Fresno of making sure our employees are treated fairly and that they get appropriate wage increases, should the budget allow it.
“It hasn’t always happened with the county and its employees, and I intend to make sure that it does.”
Chavez also said he believes the new supervisors on the board will help turn the tide for SEIU Local 2015.
“We have two incoming supervisors that have a great relationship with SEIU 2015 and our home care workers,” Chavez said, “and we’re going to continue that.
“And I know for a fact that we can count to three.”