In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) is a social service that allows people who need long-term care to receive it in the comfort and safety of their own homes. In Shasta County, approximately 4,300 IHSS workers provide long-term care services—including household work, personal care services, and paramedical services—to approximately 4,500 older adults and people with disabilities.

Without home care workers, our neighbors who receive services through IHSS would lose access to essential long-term care. Despite their vital role in Shasta’s long-term care system, IHSS workers earn just $18.10 an hour—far below what’s needed to cover household expenses.

Shasta IHSS workers are joining together to secure a strong contract that increases wages, improves benefits, and guarantees equitable access to long-term care for all who need it in our community.

Campaign Update: February 2025

In January, our bargaining team met with county officials to continue making progress on our next union contract. In that meeting, it became clear that it’s going to take everyone in our community to make sure Shasta Supervisors urgently address the long-term care crisis in our county. To alert our community to this crisis and begin building their support, we held a rally and march in front of the Board of Supervisors chambers on February 4.

Two of our bargaining team members, Ronnie Dillon and Harry Madson, spoke about the growing need for long-term care across Shasta County.

Our leaders emphasized that attracting and retaining enough caregivers is the key to ensuring everyone in our community has the freedom to choose where they receive care—and County Supervisors have the power to make that happen. Read more about the crisis and how we’re addressing it in our recent press release.

Our collective action is helping us make important progress toward our next union contract. During our most recent bargaining session, we reached agreements with the county in three key areas:

• Training: we protected our $10,000 per year training fund, which helps caregivers learn the essential skills we need to thrive on-the-job
• Safety: we secured funding for essential personal protective equipment (PPE) like gloves, masks, goggles, and gowns
• Rights & Protections: we won more union member representation in our Labor-Management Committee (LMC) and made commitments for future contract negotiations to be conducted in a timely manner

We’ll continue sounding the alarm to our community about the growing crisis in long-term care until we secure the union contract we need to adequately address it!

Campaign Update: December 2024

• We had our first bargaining session with Shasta County on December 4, and we proposed improvements for our next union contract.
• We’ll meet with the County again on January 9 to continue making progress toward a union contract that helps IHSS providers and recipients thrive.

Campaign Update: September 2024

• Our union sent a survey to Shasta IHSS workers to learn about our top priorities for our next union contract.
• Using the input from our members, our bargaining team put together contract proposals and began preparing to meet with county officials.

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Meet the Shasta IHSS Bargaining Committee