New wage to be $10.20 /hr for Alameda Co. July 1st, 2009

[From the Berkeley Disabled Yahoo group]

This statement is supposed to go on every paycheck/timesheet issued to an
Alameda County IHSS provider until July 15. I was in Charles Calavan's
office on June 4 when he put in that request to Rancho Cordova.

Per phone conv this evening, Susannah McDevitt of SEIU-ULTCW (Local 6434)
the union has filed a grievance with the county and will go so far to sue
them for violation of contract which states that the county will use Federal
Stimulus dollars to replace what the State taketh away. Let's not hold our
breath. At best it will be retroactive.

meanwhile, the real threat is looming as of October 1, when the proposal is
to reduce State contribution to IHSS to $8/hr, threatening our health
benefits as well. Oh, and that's just for those of us who still have jobs.
most (81% in Alameda County, probably 90% statewide) of current IHSS
recipients will be rendered ineligible by new criteria. That criteria is the
AVERAGE functional index score, which was never designed to measure
eligibility for services. Hello, California? Are you listening?

Nick Feldman called a last minute meeting in his office this afternoon where
a handful of advocates discussed strategies. We agreed that we need to piggy
back on what other groups are doing and join in. We are waiting for
callbacks for more information. Tonight I heard from Susannah from SEIU. in
addition to the information regarding Ala. Co, she told me that they just
learned today that the Conference Committee will be voting on Monday June 15
on the IHSS wages, benefits, and eligibility criteria. They will have a bus
(probably not w/c accessible) leaving their offices at 440 Grand Ave at 5:00
am, unless they hear of a specific time that they will be voting on our
issue in which case it may be later. Stay tuned for Action for IHSS plans
for Monday in Sacramento.

There may be a direct action event on Thursday but given this latest news of
the hearing being on Monday, there may be no point. I am waiting for
information on that and will post that and other updates on the Action for
IHSS listserve. You can join by sending an email to
act4ihss-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

thanks for asking, gmmper.

hannah jo.

ps: one little thing that really gets me is that for every dollar that the
Terminator chops from our wages, the State only saves a quarter. (someone
told me this - can't explain how that works).