"It's not about money, it's about dignity"

Gov. Schwarzenegger: Home Healthcare Is Not A Throw-Away!
On Thursday, May 28, SEIU homecare members closed their 48-hour vigil with a press conference on the steps of the California statehouse to protest drastic budget cuts which would drive homecare workers into poverty and force seniors and people with disabilities into more restrictive and costly institutional settings, as reported in the Los Angeles Times and La Opinion.

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Health workers dealt pay cut
The Daily Journal, May 20, 2009
By Michelle Durand


Photo: Rolando Rubio III/Daily Journal
In home care worker Imelda Oseguera tells San Mateo County supervisors how a $2 an hour wage cut would likely make her unable to pay her mortgage.

For four years, Imelda Oseguera cared for her mother-in-law, Maria.

Maria, who was 89 when she died Sunday, was in diapers, couldn't brush her own teeth and needed round-the-clock care for numerous ailments on top of her advancing age. Prior to that, Oseguera cared for her father-in-law and watched over an epileptic husband. Oseguera was so busy caring for others the last nine years she barely had time to handle the death of her son last year.

Oseguera doesn't complain, though. Caring for her mother-in-law, she said was an "honor and a pleasure."

For her efforts, Oseguera, 53, was paid $11.50 an hour for an eight-hour day — a wage the Menlo Park woman said is barely enough when divided out over the 24 hours she actually provided and which itself was hard-fought by the union.

"It's not about money, it's about dignity," she said.

Yet beginning in July, the work of Oseguera and the approximately 2,400 in-home health care workers like her in San Mateo County could have those efforts rewarded with a $2 per hour decrease.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved sending a letter to the state, as required, announcing plans to make local wages in line with decreased state reimbursements. Without such a change, county officials worry they will be left on the hook for approximately $3.45 million in difference between the two figures.

With such a change, though, Oseguera worries she won't be able to pay her mortgage.

As the county and state wrestle over budgetary cuts to health and human services, the recipients of those precious dollars feel stuck in the middle and forgotten in the name of a bottom line. The two-dollar hourly cut means millions for San Mateo County but members of SEIU Union 521 say it could spell significant changes to the way of life for workers and the people -- typically family members -- who receive their care.

A number could be forced to move from the county or take on more clients just to make ends meet, said union organizer Rebeca Armendariz.

"When the work is done by someone desperate for money and not from one’s heart the quality of care drops," Armendariz said.

A handful of workers personally asked the board yesterday to reconsider the first step to a wage decrease and demanded it uphold the current contract at $11.50. Health System Director Jean Fraser is dismayed the county is acting without the participation of the union but said it refuses to re-open negotiations because of a small legal technicality, namely the county not sending a formal letter to the union.

A 'very sad decision'

Supervisor Carole Groom, who called the vote a "very sad decision," asked her peers and the union to put the technicality aside and head back to the negotiating table.

Supervisor Adrienne Tissier also asked the board to lobby the state and federal government on the part of the county and its health care workers.

The federal government has said it may withhold approximately $6.8 billion in stimulus funds because the state's wage cut forces counties to make up the difference. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services held that the In-Home Supportive Services funding cuts are out of compliance with recovery act requirements for enhanced Medicaid funding.

In return, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fired off a letter saying the withholding undercuts a main purpose of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The governor also released a May budget revision proposed to drop reimbursement even further to $8 per hour, Fraser said.

If that happens, the county is looking at an approximately $4.6 million gap on top of its current deficit that could reach $100 million.

The board’s vote to authorize Fraser to send the decrease letter to the state does not mean the wage cut will actually happen, said Supervisor Rich Gordon.

Fraser was also given the authority to modify the letter as needed if the state rescinds the planned reduction or the governing Public Authority is otherwise able to pay more, the county can modify a new agreement with the union.

'The right thing to do'

The Public Authority, a county agency governed by the Board of Supervisors, oversees the IHSS program which includes the estimated 2,800 workers.

Although the county is not committed yet to the wage decrease, the workers asking for compassion yesterday weren't ready to differentiate.

The county should maintain the current rate as “the right thing to do” and not to avoid “a legal liability,” said Ricardo Solis.

Not everybody asking the board for reconsideration was a worker.

San Mateo resident Linda Lara's 86-year-old father has a caregiver who drives from East Palo Alto twice a day for a split shift.

With the costs of gas and rent, Lara said a wage cut is "unconscionable."

On the other hand, she said, receiving loving care at home instead of a retirement home or nursing facility is "priceless."


Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102.