Where is Juan when we need him?

JUAN ARAMBULA CRITICIZED FOR NOT SUPPORTING A LIVING WAGE FOR HOME CARE WORKERS

Service Employee International Union local 250 president Sal Rosselli sends letter to Fresno County Supervisor Juan Arambula:

I write to express our profound disappointment with your role in the recent events in the homecare contract negotiations. We had believed that you shared our goal of winning a first step out of poverty for minimum wage caregivers. Your actions, however, in voting to unilaterally end negotiations and implement a sub-standard wage indicates that our faith was misplaced. We are also shocked to learn of the county’s campaign, concurrent with “negotiations,” to cut average hours of service for Fresno’s IHSS clients throughout the county.

We made every attempt to work with you to identify existing and to win new state and federal funding to offset county costs. We believe our accomplishments have been impressive. Indeed, in the weeks immediately prior to your decision, SEIU secured millions of dollars in new and previously unexpected federal funds for Fresno’s IHSS program, a fact that appears to have been treated as irrelevant.

An impressively broad array of community activists expressed their support for improving IHSS, and poll results demonstrated overwhelming support among your constituents for increasing wages and benefits to or above the state standards of $9.50 an hour with medical coverage.

In spite of all this, acting as the Chair, you spearheaded the Board’s move in its unilateral implementation of the County’s shameful contract proposal of $7.50 an hour with no benefits. While we recognize that you do not cast the votes of all five Board members, your decision to cast your own vote against caregivers was yours alone. It is also noteworthy, however, that you have provided leadership to the Board on issues that are truly important to you. We sadly have come to realize that the welfare of caregivers and their clients is not one of those issues.

It is our hope that you will demonstrate a desire to find a path to a better life for caregivers and consumers by choosing to return to the table to bargain in good faith.

Sincerely,

Sal Rosselli
President
SEIU 250

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End of letter from Sal Rosselli
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SEIU 250 has worked tirelessly to negotiate a living wage for home care workers. There are stories about this struggle on Indymedia at:

http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/01/1566386.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/03/1581879.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/06/1620532.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/12/1553792.php


Join home care workers, their union, and community allies for the next BIG event:

Friday, August 29
Home care workers and their allies will risk arrest to demand a living wage and medical benefits. Join them at the Fresno County Hall of Records. Call 265-4890 for more information.