Fourteen years ago Michael Lucas took a fall from the Aptos Bridge. It left him paralyzed from the neck down and dependent on a ventilator to breathe. Since then, Lucas has been cared for by his mother, Sylvia. In exchange for caring for a citizen who cannot care for himself, she earns $11.50 an hour from the government through In Home Supportive Services of Santa Cruz County. That hourly wage, along with that of nearly 2,000 other in-home care workers in the county, is set to be cut by 10 percent by the county Board of Supervisors.
Fourteen years ago Michael Lucas took a fall from the Aptos Bridge. It left him paralyzed from the neck down and dependent on a ventilator to breathe. Since then, Lucas has been cared for by his mother, Sylvia. In exchange for caring for a citizen who cannot care for himself, she earns $11.50 an hour from the government through In Home Supportive Services of Santa Cruz County. That hourly wage, along with that of nearly 2,000 other in-home care workers in the county, is set to be cut by 10 percent by the county Board of Supervisors.
Santa Cruz County’s contract with Service Employees International, the union that represents long-term care workers like Sylvia Lucas, expired in September of last year. Since then, the union has been locked in negotiations with the county over the proposed cut.
At the Aug. 2 meeting of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, Lucas read from a letter he wrote to the supervisors. He said the cuts in wages would have a drastic impact on his family. “We may be forced to move from a county where I was born and have lived my entire 43 years,” he said. “Please [take] me and others like me into consideration before making a drastic cut to a program that is barely keeping folks like my parents’ heads above water.”
The problem stems from the fact that IHSC is funded through a combination of state, local and federal funds; the portions that the state and federal governments contribute have shrunk. “It’s a matter of money,” says board of supes chairman Mark Stone. “We’ve been negotiating with [SEIU] as we’ve been negotiating with all the bargaining units that we have.”
If the 10 percent cut that the board is proposing goes through, in-home care workers’ wages would be reduced to $10.35 an hour—low for Santa Cruz County, but still higher than the wage earned by in-home care workers in other parts of the state.
“We believe that an $11.50 wage is a fair wage,” says Erik Larsen, SEIU organizer. “We’re not asking for an increase, although the county’s living wage ordinance for non-benefited employees is $15 an hour. That’s what they pay landscapers and security guards.” He adds, “Our folks can’t go anywhere else. They’re already making poverty wages.”
Lucas was the first of a crush of speakers who wished to give public comment on the proposed cut at the first supervisors’ meeting following a month-long recess. Dan Oliveri, chaplain at Resurrection Catholic Church in Aptos, also presented the board with a 400-signature petition asking supervisors to reconsider the decision.
Larsen says the county walked away from union negotiations on July 27. There is no date set for a final vote on the issue.
