Raise for County Home Care Workers Faces Obstacle

For about 72,000 home care workers in Los Angeles County, the news from Sacramento on Monday could hardly have been better: Gov. Gray Davis agreed to meet their demands for a pay raise to $7.50 per hour plus health insurance. He also called for $1-per-hour increases in each of the next four years.

But the gesture could prove meaningless here unless the county Board of Supervisors agrees to chip in more money for the matching fund program. And achieving that won’t be easy.

For several years, the county has insisted that it won’t put an extra penny into the program, which provides at-home care to elderly and disabled clients who might otherwise need to live in state facilities.

Under a complex formula, the federal government pays almost half of the program’s expenses, while the state picks up about 65% of the remainder. Counties traditionally have filled in the rest.

But the county has argued that the state should take full responsibility for pay increases. Even friends of labor on the board seemed irked by the governor’s budget, which would require the county to fund about 20% of the raise.

“We are not the deep pocket, the state’s the deep pocket,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, comparing the state’s $12.3-billion surplus to the county’s $48 million.

Yaroslavsky said there may need to be “a meeting on the mountain” of those concerned about the program to determine how to ensure its future. “If this is what they’re doing when they have a $13-billion surplus, you wonder what’s going to happen when the revenues are flat,” said Yaroslavsky, who proposed Los Angeles County’s creation of the Personal Assistance Services Council in 1997.

Indeed, supervisors today are scheduled to consider a motion by conservative Supervisor Mike Antonovich to abolish the Personal Assistance Services Council. In his papers for the motion, Antonovich noted that the creation of the council included language that the county should not have to pay extra money for raises and called the proposed increase a “violation” of the county ordinance.

The county’s proposed budget for next year includes no money for raises, consistent with the supervisors’ long-standing position. “The board’s not going to budge from that,” Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen said.

Los Angeles County home care workers--who account for more than half the home care workers in the state--joined the Service Employees International Union a year ago. The election was a union landmark, hailed by national labor leaders as proof that organizing low-wage, minority and immigrant workers could pay off in big numbers.

The majority of home care workers in Los Angeles County are African American, or Latino or Asian immigrants, and most are women. Until last year, they earned minimum wage.

Union leaders said the county’s share of the raise would amount to less than $35 million a year. “That’s chump change for Los Angeles County,” said Tyrone Freeman, general manager of SEIU Local 434B. Freeman argued that some of the money could be pulled from the tobacco settlement that will bring more than $100 million to the county for each of the next five years.

In any case, Davis’ surprising turnabout on home care wages, which will be highlighted by a news conference in West Hollywood today, puts the county in an uncomfortable spotlight. And Freeman said the union intends to keep it there.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm and joy in the union,” he said. “People believe they can win, and they’re motivated to take on the next challenge.”