11/24/04: Madera home care workers marched on Tuesday, in response to the Madera County Board of Supervisors voting to give themselves a raise this year while refusing to increase the wages and benefits of home care workers. Madera workers have been fighting for living wages since March 2003 when they joined the union. The workers are asking for $8.50 an hour with benefits, and the county has countered with a $ .25 an hour raise with no benefits. The march ended by filling the Board of Supervisors meeting to demand a living wage. In Fresno, more than two hundred nurses from the University Medical Center walked the picket line on Tuesday. The issues are improved retention of experienced RN's, a "union shop," and patient protection through adequate staffing and objective pay scales. UMC nurses were forced to strike when management failed to bargain in good faith after the recent assignment of a federal mediator to the more than year-long negotiations.