SEIU California
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 19, 2025

Watch press conference recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ7_iLEUJ64

Sacramento, CA – Home care workers were joined today by Assemblymember Matt Haney for a news conference celebrating a critical step forward for their plan to protect the life-saving care that 829,000 seniors and people with disabilities depend on in California: AB 283 (Haney), a bill to authorize In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) workers statewide to bargain for wages, benefits, and training opportunities with one unified voice, advanced from the Assembly Public Employment and Retirement Committee this morning with a 7-0 bipartisan vote. 

Caregivers and the IHSS consumers they’re dedicated to caring for recognized that today’s progress comes at a time when Medi-Cal, the foundation of health care and home care for 829,000 IHSS consumers, is at great risk. Extremists in Congress have proposed slashing up to $880 billion in Medicaid funding in order to give a huge tax cut to corporations and wealthy CEOs like Elon Musk. Cuts of this magnitude would reduce healthcare access, put hospitals and clinics at risk of closure, increase healthcare costs for all, and worsen an already crisis-level shortage of home care caregivers. 

“Caregivers dedicate their expertise and their compassion to empowering our state’s seniors and people with disabilities to live and age in the way they want: at home, in their communities. Today, protecting the people we love and care for means we must lead the fight against Medicaid cuts AND transform the profession of caregiving, we can’t do either alone,” declared Doug Moore, Executive Director, United Domestic Workers/AFSCME Local 3930. 

“IHSS caregivers are leading a relentless fight to stop cuts to Medicaid, a courageous fight that means confronting the Elon Musk and CEOs demanding cuts to healthcare for 1 in 3 Californians and 1 in 4 California seniors and people with disabilities just to take bigger tax breaks for themselves,” added Arnulfo De La Cruz, President, SEIU Local 2015. “Caregivers are united in protecting the foundation of health care and home care for IHSS clients at the same time we push for a strong, statewide voice to lift up the people who provide this care.”  

Caregivers who are members of SEIU Local 2015 and United Domestic Workers/AFSCME Local 3930 are sponsoring AB 283 to address a crisis in caregiving caused by low-wages, poor benefits, and a lack of training and growth opportunities. Currently, caregivers must negotiate contracts county-by-county, a fragmented system that has resulted in caregivers earning wages just above the minimum wage in the vast majority of the state. Even working full-time, many caregivers qualify for public assistance. 

This patchwork system perpetuates inequality for caregivers, predominantly women and people of color, whose labor continues to be exploited, undervalued and underpaid. In California, in-home care workers are 79% women, 75% people of color, and 47% immigrants.

As a result, home care is increasingly hard to find, even as the need for care grows every single year. Statewide, in 2024 there were 44 million hours of unmet home care needs.  

“California can’t claim to care for our seniors and people with disabilities and then pay caregivers so little that 1 in 4 leave the profession every year,” said Wendy Davenport, a Fresno County IHSS provider and SEIU 2015 member. “When your loved one needs care, access shouldn’t depend on where you live; AB 283 means caregivers will finally have the statewide voice we need to improve home care from Eureka to Calexico.” 

“Caregiving work isn’t easy, but it sure is meaningful to the people we care for – and our whole state. We keep our loved ones and yours safe and in our communities, with more independence and less cost than nursing homes. I am proud that the Assembly Committee recognized our worth and our need for a stronger voice so we can ensure no one goes without the care and dignity they deserve,” said UDW MEMBER, Belinda Wells.

AB 283 moves California beyond a patchwork approach to delivering the care our loved ones need by giving caregivers a fair shot at bargaining good contracts through statewide collective bargaining. Under one statewide contract caregivers will bargain for better wages and benefits to attract and retain more caregivers so our seniors and people with disabilities receive services they need to stay healthy in their homes. 

“Taking care of vulnerable people, people who might otherwise end up in danger – or even institutionalized – is a highly skilled, vitally important occupation that deserves respect, living wages, good benefits, and retirement security,” said Assemblymember Haney. “AB 283 is a simple bill: it gives home care providers in the IHSS system the ability to bargain with one voice, at one table, in order to lift up our care system, transform the profession of caregiving, and to create the changes we need statewide.”