SEIU Local 2015 strives to build a long-term care system that accomplishes two goals. First, our system must be able to meet the needs of everyone who needs care, and break down barriers to care because of income and structural racism. Second, the system does not work for workers. We must deliver dignified wages and benefits, retirement security, training, and a safe working environment for every caregiver.
How Do We Accomplish This?
Members actively educate and organize elected leaders and their community to support policies and legislation that advance our goals. Through this, we can work to:
- Ensure long term care workers have access to a living wage, benefits and retirement and have a centralized way to magnify their collective bargaining voice in California by promoting quality union jobs and centralized bargaining.
- Protect the choice of seniors and people with disabilities to receive care and live with dignity in the setting of their choice.
- Maintain fully funded long-term care services and support entitlement programs essential to the consumers, providers, and families these programs serve. Establish a stable funding source for long term care services, without placing more pressure on the state general fund.
- Hold accountable employers who operate and profit from long term services and support programs to use the greatest amount of public dollars to provide quality care and address the underlying issues with the workforce shortage in the long-term care industry.
- Improve the system of long term that creates areas of integration across the administration of these services to promote financial soundness, efficiency, ability for providers and consumers to navigate and access services more easily while maintaining consumer choice.
What Have We Accomplished So Far?
Fought and won a state budget and legislation that:
- Once again protected the IHSS program from a 7% cut.
- Requires every county to give union member leaders and representatives 30 minutes at the beginning of IHSS orientations to orient new providers about their union.
- Won paid sick leave for Waiver Personal Care Services (WPCS) providers.
- Passed Assembly Bill 81 that reformed the skilled nursing facility Medi-Cal reimbursement system to ensure that funding is spent to better support the needs of the nursing home workforce.
Used direct advocacy and action during COVID-19 pandemic to win:
- An extension of the no timesheet violation period for IHSS providers.
- The delay of the implementation of Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) in remaining counties.
- Supplies of PPE for home care workers in every county.
- Requirements for nursing home employers to spend extra Medicaid funding on items such as PPE, wages, benefits, testing, infection control, and other things directly related to safety and protections during the pandemic.