The United Domestic Workers of America (UDW/AFSCME 3930) issued the following statement supporting the joint legislative budget agreement:
The over 155,000 home care and child care workers represented by UDW applaud Senate pro Tempore Atkins, Speaker Rendon, Assemblymember Ting, Senator Skinner, and their respective caucuses for the joint legislative budget agreement that makes historic investments in underserved communities around the state and prioritizes essential frontline workers – including our home care and child care providers – and their families.
We especially support the Better for Families Rebates plan, the CalEITC increase and the new Worker Tax Fairness Credit. These policies, when taken together, put money directly into the pockets of the Californians who are most impacted by the rising cost of living and help narrow race and gender income disparities. These investments will go toward improving quality of life in some of the most impoverished communities and help generate economic stability.
This proposed budget also brings us one step closer to strengthening our foundation for climate resiliency for IHSS, an important objective in the Master Plan on Aging, by paying IHSS providers who are going above and beyond their call of duty to ensure the health and safety of older adults and individuals with disabilities during natural disasters. It is essential as we address the rapidly growing need for older adult care in the state to recruit and retain a strong workforce, and one of the best ways to do this is not only to increase wages and benefits, but to also ensure workers are best prepared for the future of the program starting with new employee orientations. We also support facilitating participation in the States’ CalSavers retirement program for our workers.
Additionally, we commend the Legislature’s ongoing commitment to investing in child care. This budget agreement allocates funding to stabilize the child care workforce through access to quality, affordable health care and retirement savings, waiving family fees, extending the hold harmless policies, and providing a meaningful increase to reimbursement rates. This will help stabilize providers and ensure access to reliable child care services as the state continues to recover from the pandemic and return to work.
Overall, this budget agreement reflects our progressive values in the state as we look towards building the future of the fifth largest economy in the world to ensure our citizens, especially the most underserved, are a priority in how we structure funding for critical programs. We urge the Governor, who has always shown his leadership and support on child care and IHSS workers, to make these critical investments to provide much-needed support and economic recovery.
Doug Moore, UDW Executive Director
