California - Rally Supports Home Care Providers

No Cuts! | Members of United Domestic Workers Union (UDW/AFSCME) rally in Los Angeles to stop funding cuts.

Photo Credit: Mike Norris

Los Angeles, California

Members of United Domestic Workers Union (UDW/AFSCME), other service worker unions and their allies, gathered in Los Angeles in May to hold the largest demonstration of support for California’s home care providers in state history.

The demonstrators’ goal: prevent cuts in critical public programs, especially In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), one of California’s most cost-effective programs for promoting independent living among seniors and the disabled.

Poll results demonstrate that a majority of California voters oppose cuts to such public services, but favor higher taxes on the wealthy and on specific industries like oil, tobacco and alcohol. These findings offer a blueprint for a progressive state budget.

If voters in May had approved five state ballot propositions designed to help close the state funding gap, the state’s $20 billion deficit would have been reduced and legislators might have felt less pressure to make deep cuts in social programs like IHSS.

Now, however, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) wants to reduce the state’s wage contribution to IHSS providers to $8 an hour, the minimum wage in California. The next step is for lawmakers to develop a progressive state budget in 2010 that does not depend on ballot initiatives.
“The voters have spoken,” says San Diego home care provider Laura Reyes, who is president of UDW and an AFSCME International vice president. “The Legislature and governor just need to listen to the will of the people.”

“We want real solutions to the state’s budget problems,” adds Douglas Moore Jr., executive director of UDW and also an AFSCME International vice president.