California United Homecare Workers represents as many as 1,500 IHSS providers who serve disabled and elderly IHSS clients, according to union officials.
Lake County News obtained a copy of a letter dated June 8 in which union President Tyrone Freeman called on Lake County IHSS union members “to participate in a recall movement focused on specific members of the County Board of Supervisors.”
Freeman added, “It is my recommendation that this recall campaign begin immediately.”
The letter was accompanied by a card on which union members were to mark their support for the union's participation in the recall campaign and establish a campaign fund.
The specific event that Freeman points to as being the launch point for the recall effort was the board's June 5 meeting.
At that time, the Board of Supervisors voted to forward to the state a proposal that would give IHSS providers a $1-per-hour raise if they undergo drug testing. That would raise their pay from minimum wage to $8.50, plus money to cover administrative costs, payroll taxes and worker's compensation.
Requiring IHSS providers to undergo drug testing in effect creates a “two-tier” pay system, Freeman wrote to union members, with those who take the tests getting the extra dollar an hour, and those who don't remaining at minimum wage.
Following the June 5 meeting, local IHSS representative David Smith told Lake County News that the union was upset about the board action on the proposal because they felt it was a matter that should have been discussed in negotiations but wasn't.
However, Smith deferred all comment on the recall campaign to Freeman, who did not return calls placed to his office this week seeking comment for this story. Freeman and other union officials are reportedly in Baltimore for a meeting.
Freeman's letter alleges that “specific members of the Lake County Board of Supervisors continue to blatantly ignore the needs, and place in jeopardy, the County's most precious and vulnerable residents: our seniors and people living with disabilities.”
The union, writes Freeman, “has negotiated in good faith to protect the IHSS program by increasing worker wages and providing needed health benefits.”
Supervisor Rob Brown said he found out about the letter from a constituent who contacted him to ask about what it meant.
Brown called the letter a “scare tactic,” but added that he was limited in what he could say about the matter until the board decides how to approach it.
County Counsel Anita Grant was similarly cautious in what she could say about the issue, noting that it may be a matter of employee negotiations, which the board can't comment upon publicly.
“It's just come out and no particular response is known at this point by the board as a group,” she said.
Grant added that, if the board decided to take action in response to the letter outside of negotiations, they would do so publicly.
Freeman's letter said the union's bargaining team has opposed “any proposal from the County that requires an IHSS provider or consumer to 'pay for a drug test; pay for a criminal background check, and/or pay for mandated training,'” as a condition of receiving the proposed wage increase.
During the June 5 meeting, the board's discussion did not include a discussion of charging either IHSS providers or clients for background checks, drug tests or training.
On June 6, the state Senate approved SB 868, which adds criminal background checks to a list of IHSS provider requirements, and prevents counties from charging IHSS providers for those checks, as Lake County News previously reported.
At that time, Smith said that local IHSS workers and clients are not required to pay for the background checks that are currently done.
However, Freeman's letter implies that the county's June 5 decision included that stipulation.
That was one point about which Brown said he was able to comment. “This board has never, ever indicated that they would require the folks in IHSS to provide for this (payment), whether it be the provider or the recipient.”
He added that Sheriff Rod Mitchell has, in the past, paid for IHSS provider CPR training out of his own budget to prevent the costs being passed on.
Grant, who said she has represented the county in its negotiations with bargaining units for many years, said she has never seen a union attempt a recall effort such as that now being proposed.
The county may be facing other issues with the union as well. On May 31 Freeman sent the board a letter in which he threatened “immediate legal action” if the board voted for the wage raise and drug testing proposal, which it did.
County officials would not comment on whether or not that legal action had been initiated.
Grant said the union recall action is not agendized for a closed session meeting on this Tuesday's board agenda.
Lake County isn't the only place where California United Homecare Workers is turning up the heat.
On June 19, the union organized a rally of IHSS workers at the Imperial County Board of Supervisors meeting. Imperial County's IHSS workers also currently receive minimum wage, or $7.50 an hour, and no health benefits.
Imperial County's supervisors said they don't have the money to raise IHSS wages, to which IHSS providers and clients told the board it was “ineffective in its leadership,” according to a report by Imperial County's Channel 13 News.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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