L.A. County Home-Care Aides Still Seek ‘Fair Share’

A year after celebrating the largest union victory in recent U.S. history, 74,000 Los Angeles home-care workers are only marginally better off, with wages up a mere 50 cents an hour and health insurance still nowhere in sight.

The landmark vote by Los Angeles care providers in February 1999 boosted union membership in the county by 10%, and was hailed by national labor leaders as proof that organizing low-wage, immigrant and minority workers can pay off in big numbers.

But as events of the last year have demonstrated, even when organized, such workers face great obstacles in improving wages and benefits. For workers who were active in the union drive and who supported political candidates who promised to help them, the experience has been sobering.

“Thank God for the 50 cents, but it’s still a poverty wage,” said Mary Simmons, who cares for a partially paralyzed stroke victim. “Everything is such a fight. Sometimes it seems like no one’s listening to us.”

State and county political leaders who once championed the home-care cause have blamed each other for failing to contribute a “fair share” to the workers. But the complicated mechanics of the program--which is funded by three levels of government while an L.A. County-appointed board serves as the employer of record--also has hampered progress.

Care providers now earn $6.25 per hour, up from the state minimum wage of $5.75. In contrast, home-care workers in San Francisco earn $9 per hour with medical and dental insurance.

County home-care workers feed, clothe, bathe and provide other assistance to elderly and disabled clients in their homes. They are paid out of a mix of county, state and federal funds. Advocates say the program saves the state millions of dollars a year by keeping indigent people at home rather than in more costly facilities.

Advocates for higher pay note the irony that many of those who care for the county’s sick and infirm cannot afford health care themselves. A recent survey by researchers with USC and the Service Employees International Union found that 45% of the home-care providers in Los Angeles have no health insurance.

Debate Over Who Should Bear Costs

State and county officials have said they favor higher pay and benefits for home-care workers, but have not produced proposals that would make the increases possible.

L.A. County supervisors have said the state should bear much of the cost of any raise because the program saves the state government so much money. In fact, when supervisors created the public board that allowed home-care workers to unionize, they did it with the understanding that no additional county funds would be spent.

“The linchpin to all this is state funding,” said L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who was among a half a dozen political leaders on hand to celebrate the union victory last year. “The county has done a lot here,” he said. “The county created the vehicle through which the in-home care workers could be unionized.”

But Gov. Gray Davis and several state legislators said L.A. County should help fund an increase. “The county has obligations and there’s an expectation they fulfill them,” said Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles). “The state would be willing to work with them.”

After federal grants, the Los Angeles County-state split has been 35-65 to pay for in-home health-care workers, officials said. Last year, the county paid 20% of the cost for the new 50-cent raise, with the state picking up the remainder. Gov. Davis has irked the county this year by proposing it resume its 35-65 ratio to fund future raises.

Jeanine Meyer Rodriguez, a legislative strategist with the SEIU state council, said such arguments have been typical of negotiations for the last year. “One of the problems has been that no level of government takes full responsibility,” she said. “When it comes to making improvements, they all point to the other. Our challenge is to work at each level. That’s why things are so slow.”

The campaign to unionize home-care workers in Los Angeles dates back to 1990. At that time, home-care workers, who found clients through classified ads or word-of-mouth, were considered independent contractors and so could not form a union. The state eventually passed legislation that allowed counties to appoint boards that would act as the employer of record, so that the workers would be considered employees.

Five other counties--San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Alameda and Santa Clara--also established boards, and workers eventually voted in unions. Wages in those counties range from $6.05 in San Mateo to $9 in San Francisco, where the county is picking up the entire increase.

But when Los Angeles County supervisors established the Personal Assistance Services Council in 1997, they made it clear the county would not contribute to any increase in wages or benefits. They were willing to assume the 20% cost for last year’s raises, county officials said, because a change in the formula for their federal funding covered the county’s share of the raises.

Davis, who courted home-care workers during his 1998 campaign, has proposed a 50-cent annual raise for home-care workers over the next five years on the condition that counties pay 35% of it.

“Right now what the governor is saying is, ‘I’m going to put in a higher rate [of funds for raises] than I ever have before.’ What’s in the governor’s budget is what the governor feels he can commit to this program,” said a Davis spokeswoman, who would not speak on the record.

At Least Another Year to See Change

Art Pulaski, secretary-treasurer of the California Federation of Labor, said labor--a strong ally of Davis during the campaign--was “vigorously supporting a significant increase” in pay and benefits for home-care workers. On the other hand, Pulaski didn’t expect any news soon.

“It always takes a few years once you get organized for things to really take shape,” he said. “But in this case, it’s complicated further by the quasi public/private nature of these workers. It’s not like you’re sitting down at a negotiating session with an employer who’s got money in his pockets.

“On top of that, you’ve got an extremely deliberative governor, who really studies an issue before he makes a decision. I’d say it may be another year at least before you see a significant change.”

In the meantime, home-care workers in Los Angeles have a union hall that offers groceries at warehouse prices five nights a week and free English and Spanish classes two nights a week.

“Sometimes in this job, you feel like you’re all alone,” said Simmons. “You might be with your client eight hours a day, even longer. You lift them out of bed, put them on the potty, put on their clothes. You pray with them, and you try to keep them from getting too depressed. I don’t think most people understand what that’s like. At least here at the union, you get to meet other people who are going through the same thing.”

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Wage Disparity

Hourly wages vary considerably for in-home health-care workers who have voted to unionize in six California counties.

*

San Francisco: $9*

Contra Costa: 7.01

Santa Clara: 6.25

Alameda: 6.25

Los Angeles: 6.25

San Mateo: 6.05

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*Health benefits included

Source: SEIU Local 434

IG Wage Disparity, Los Angeles Times