Assembly Standing Committee on Public Employment and Retirement

Good morning. Can you hear me? Good morning. I like that. Well, Members of the Committee, we don't have any yet, and the public, the informational hearing today is about the public sector in California and how we strengthen the state through the public sector and its workforce. We're going to hear from several panels that include researchers, leaders, and employees who will provide an overview and details regarding local government, education and the state's public sector areas.

California is facing challenges in each of these areas of government, and it's important that we have a vital public sector. As the state continues to try to find solutions to deal with poverty, inequity, climate change, and extreme weather, natural disasters, housing affordability and homelessness, and a rapidly aging population, one thing remains the same. California's public sector is absolutely vital to addressing these matters. But the public sector needs to be strong for a number of years and even more during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Public sector employment practices have degraded that were once considered as a safe middle-class jobs that supported families and communities. Each day, with increasing demand for public services, burnout and retirement, vacancies in the public sector also have increased. How do we address these challenges when public sector employment practices are behind on the use of technology and other platforms for recruitment and are leading to a reliance on a temporary or contingent workforce, contracting out in wages that are not keeping up with inflation?

We'll explore each of these items during this hearing before we begin. If time permits, toward the end of this hearing, we will also have a brief period for public comment. However, the Committee also accepts written testimony, including for this hearing through the Advocacy Portal. You can submit written testimony through the Advocacy portal on the Committee's Internet website. Also, we have a change to one of the presenters during this hearing. Catherine LaBarger is unable to join us today.

However, Sarah Flox, who is the Legislative and Strategic Campaign Director with the California Labor Federation, will be presented in Catherine's place. With that, let's start with our first panel. Our first panel today will be Dr. Sara Hinkley, not Catherine, sorry, Sarah Flock and Tia Orr and Brian K. Rice. Please come up.

Good morning. Excuse my voice, but you know when you're yelling for the Lakers, this is what happens. And if you guys could please introduce yourself as you start. Thank you.

I'm a Warriors fan. We'll start with that. My name is Dr. Sarah Hinkley. I'm a specialist at the UC Berkeley Labor Center in the public sector. Thank you for holding this hearing, and thank you for inviting me to participate on this panel. As of March 2023, 2.6 million Californians work for local, state or federal government, nearly 15% of the state's workforce. In addition to providing vital services, public sector jobs have historically been a pathway to middle class stability, particularly for African Americans and for women.

In California last year, 24% of Black workers were employed in the public sector, up from 19% in 2019. Hispanic workers make up 33% of the public sector 58% are women, compared to only 43% in the private sector. These are the same workers, often disproportionately impacted by recessions and by declines in public services. In the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic, 178,000 government employees in California lost their jobs. Only 80% of those jobs have come back.

As of March 2023, California's local government employment is still down more than 45,000 jobs, a decline that cuts across all occupations. State education is down 13,000 jobs, local education more than 37,000 and other local government nearly 24,000 jobs. But even these losses do not fully capture the degree to which California's public sector has languished. In California, public sector employment has never recovered from the Great Recession, when population growth is factored in.

When the pandemic was declared, California should have had an additional 74,000 state and local government workers to keep pace with population growth. As of January 2022, when the last official population estimates were issued, that gap had grown to more than 150,000 jobs. Private sector employment has recovered fairly well since 2020, growing by 2%, over 344,000 jobs, but public sector employment has actually fallen by 1%, 34,000 jobs.

Public sector wages have also failed to keep pace with the private sector, making it increasingly difficult for government agencies to fill open positions. Since 2010, private sector wage growth each month, while still well below inflation levels, has significantly outpaced that in the public sector, a reversal of the Great Recession when public sector wages remained relatively stable.

In addition, the one-time nature of most federal stimulus funding and uncertainty over ongoing state funding makes public employers hesitant to raise wages or create new permanent positions that will incur ongoing costs. Thus, the strong state and federal investments made over the past few years have failed to produce a strong public sector recovery. Compounding the challenges faced by local government revenue loss, public sector spending is an important economic stabilizer.

Not only are public services especially critical during economic downturns, stable jobs keep money circulating in the economy, bolstering consumer spending and providing important economic stability for millions of families. The Great Recession was followed by the weakest economic recovery on record, with wages and employment across the economy stagnating well into the following decade. Economists believed that lagging public sector employment was a significant factor in this anemic economic recovery.

A weak federal stimulus response, significant state budget cuts, and restrictions on local revenues all contributed to leave Californians worse off economically heading into the global pandemic. Understanding public sector employment trends is vital because they reflect the government's ability to support economic resilience and growth. Without strong public services, good schools, safe streets, reliable transportation, an effective safety net, and robust public health systems, California's economy cannot reach its full potential.

When we see public sector employment stagnate, as we have for the past 15 years, we should be very concerned. I'm glad you're holding this important hearing, and thank you again for inviting me to participate.

Madam Chair, Members, Sarah Flocks, California Labor Federation. Thank you to you and your staff for putting together this hearing. And the Labor Federation represents 2 million union members in the State of California, the majority of which work in the public sector. In fact, of our 1,200 affiliates, probably almost everyone represents workers in the public sector. And you're going to hear from some incredible speakers today. But that is only a small slice of the public sector in California.

The public sector, public sector workers literally are the foundation of this state and what keeps it running. And by foundation, I mean like the sewers, the water lines, our clean drinking water, the roads we drive on, the bus drivers, the people who help us in emergencies, the ones who prevent emergencies, the ones who make sure that we have our UI checks and whatever we need to get through whatever the recession, the economy or natural disasters throw at us.

And for the Labor Federation, our public sector workers, they're everyone, A to Z. They're arborists, accountants, bus drivers, youth counselors and zookeepers. It is an incredible, incredible range of workers. And they're also the workers who collect the money that fund the state to run. I just wanted to give a shout out. FTB, EDD, CDTFA, BOE, Local 1000 members who are in the audience. Maybe jazz hands. These are the people who collect the funds and distribute it to keep our state running.

They are really the heart of this state. And for generations, the public sector was also the ticket to the middle-class. We've heard about the hollowing out of the middle-class and a lot of times that's focused on manufacturing, on auto workers and steel in the Rust Belt. But really the public sector for workers all over cities, towns, suburban, urban, rural, that has been the ticket to the middle class because everyone has roads and a library and schools.

So you were able to get a good union job. And in the 1960s and '70s, the Federal Government put in anti-discrimination and equal rights protections so that more women and people of color could get into these good union jobs. And as a result, state and local government is much more diverse than the private sector. And because unionization, there's five times as much unionization in the public sector. Those are good jobs.

So you have a stable career job that's permanent, where you can raise a family, buy a home, and retire. And that's all over our state. And that also helps reduce the racial and gender wage gap. And in fact, just in Los Angeles, I think UCLA did the study, 22% of public sector workers are Black, and they earn 46% more on average than their counterparts in the private sector.

So these are jobs that are important in terms of serving the State of California and addressing the income inequality and racial wage gap in the State of California. The flip side, the not good news, and what you're going to hear a lot of today is that the public sector is becoming a lot more like the worst aspects of the private sector. It's the Walmartization, the Amazonification of the public sector, where it's more contingent, more part time, more temporary.

Wages are lower, and tightening budgets mean we have not recovered jobs from the Great Recession. And so this hearing is so incredibly important because the public sector is important. It's important to our state. It's important in reducing income inequality, racial inequality, and gender inequality. And it is something that we need to have strengthened because it makes California better and it makes California stronger. So I just want to thank you so much for having this hearing. To all of the union Members who are here to testify.

I hope that this leads to more hearings and to taking action to improve public sector jobs. Thank you.

All right. Good morning, Madam Chair, and thank you to your consultants for all of the work. And I would just echo the comments of everybody else on the table. Just thank you for taking leadership and having this informational hearing today. I think you see from the presence of our brothers and sisters in the crowd how important this is and, as Sarah Flocks indicated, this is only a small facet of public sector workers in the State of California.

Most of them right now are making our state go, helping people that are vulnerable and ensuring that they're doing the best job that they can. And maybe go Kings. I don't know. Go Kings. So, again, I think you've heard that there are several facets of the public sector, and thank you for joining as well. That we have seen where our foundation has weakened.

As Sarah alluded to, California faces huge challenges, extreme poverty, inequality, climate change, extreme weather and natural disasters, housing affordability and homelessness, which is a centerpiece of our conversations here in the Legislature, a growing aging population, increasing needs for mental health, and that means we have to have a strong workforce. That's who delivers those services. These cannot be solved without a strong public sector and robust workforce. I would argue that the real strength of our public sector comes from our workforce.

Again, many of who you see behind me. My mother was a public sector worker for many years and found a path to the middle-class because of the opportunities in the public sector. However, as Sarah alluded to, that foundation has been eroded, undermined by exploitive practices borrowed from the private sector I would argue.

I'm going to outline a few major challenges that we can think about, and hopefully this is the first of many hearings as we try to explore and think about solutions to restrengthening the foundation of the public sector. Short staffing and failure to hire is prevalent across state employment as well as county employment. It's one of the core challenges that workers face throughout the economy, whether it's in fast food restaurants, a nursing home, a developmental disability regional center.

It is the pattern of deliberate short staffing, really to save money at the expense of not only the services that we provide to the most vulnerable of Californians, but the public sector job that we all can, I think, believe was the foundation to the middle-class, especially for women and people of color. Temporary and contingent work has grown more rapid across the public sector, state employment as well as county employment. Many workers are being kept in contingent status for years, temp workers for years.

What does that mean? They're doing the job of the state. They're delivering service to the most vulnerable. They don't have access to benefits. They don't have access to pensions. They don't have access to a union and a voice at the table. That has been done deliberately. Some of the practices that you find in some of the worst employers across the country, mainly in the private sector, will go after.

But I have to say, and I'm embarrassed to say, this is a reality for public sector workers and employers, which are the state as well. Another issue that you've heard us talk about so much is contracting out and outsourcing. Contracting out public sector work has led to an array of problems. Degradation of services such as substance abuse treatment, labor abuses such as wage theft and corporate overcharging, and profit extraction at the cost of public sector services.

I really want to center us into what services we're providing when we talk in the state about those who are the have nots and the income inequality gap that we know also well, the public sector is there to provide the services to those most vulnerable so they can climb to self sufficiency. Unfortunately, when the state goes into a recession, hopefully we're not getting there now, but I know we're in some budget crisis.

Those lines for services are out the door, and you don't have an infrastructure or workers there to be able to service their needs. So I want us to think hopefully today not only about the public sector workers and the deservance of salaries and wages and union representation, but also about the services that are being left off the table to the most vulnerable people in your districts, your constituents who are not able to access the services for all the reasons that I'm going to lay out.

And that relates to declining standards, workers for the state, counties, and cities are not keeping up. Even the cost of living in the state continues to soar. The wages of public sector workers remain stagnant, if not flat. We have state workers who are homeless. You're going to hear about that today. State workers who are homeless. It is embarrassing.

It should be a shame for any one of us that are governing and those who are advocating with the government to try to make change. You have county workers who are utilizing food banks. These are jobs that folks used to desire and hope to get in order for them to provide their families a middle-class life.

And unfortunately, when people get these jobs, not only do they quickly seek employment in the private sector because it's so much more competitive, they are struggling and sometimes lining up in the same lines in the people that they serve every single day. And it's something that we have to grapple with and we should all be ashamed about. These hit the public services that are coming in a time when California's new majority of people of color are becoming the majority in public services, it has to change.

I want to provide just a quick roadmap in the time that I have about how we can do maybe four things to try to address this issue. Fill the vacancies. Right. Demand accountability for adequate staffing at every single level of government. Empower temporary workers. We have a Bill in the Legislature right now that treats them like they're valued. Make sure that they're not temporary workers for long periods of time.

They're called temp workers for a reason, as if it's temporary that is being used to circumvent public sector work and save money at the expense of not only services, but the empowerment of public sector workers. Setting standards for contracting out, making sure that if we're going to use taxpayer dollars to outsource for services that maybe some of the folks that we're serving need, let's ensure that there's a cost benefit analysis.

Let's ensure that the outcomes are met with the goal that you at the Legislature set out for them to achieve. Let's make sure those workers make comparable salaries to those at the county or the public sector like our USWW members, janitor and security officers are here and we'll tell you about later today and raising standards across the board for public services. We can no longer let our public servants, state workers, and others keep falling behind.

We need to raise standards across the board, starting with a fair and strong contract for our Local 1000 members that will be before you in a short period of time and we'll need your leadership to drive to the finish line. I want to thank you again for your time and I think you feel the energy in the room and just know SEIU, on behalf of 700,000 workers, there's many more where this comes from.

I think we're collected in our action and our fight together and again appreciate your leadership and joining with us to have this discussion and talk about solutions.

Nice job. Good Morning Chair Mckinnor and Members of the Committee. My name is Brian Rice. I'm the President of the California Professional Firefighters. I have the honor of representing nearly 35,000 professional firefighters and emergency medical service personnel statewide. Most of my members are employed by cities, counties and special districts and the state and having a strong public sector workforce is imperative to the fire service. And I want to thank you for having today's hearing.

Firefighters and all public employees dedicate their careers to public service within their communities and it's because of that dedication as a union, we fight to ensure that firefighters and public employees are afforded protections on the job and a secure retirement at the end of a career that they have loved. Over the years, particularly during economic downturns, we have seen public sector employers target fire department budgets as a place to cut cost and to continue to employ.

And we continue to employ our elected leaders to protect firefighters that protect us. Fire departments and the provisions of emergency medical response are, at their core, public services and should not be profit motivated. Every Californian that dials 911 or needs assistance from a firefighter, a paramedic or an EMT should all experience the same high-quality public service, no matter what or where they live.

In this context, I want to echo the sentiments of my sister, Tia Orr from SEIU by raising concerns about the efforts by employers, including the state and local government, to contract out our work. It's not theoretical. This just happened last week in Northern California at an airport that was considering moving their fire protection from a city department to a private contractor. CPF stood in support of the city and we should all work together to ensure that essential government services are provided by public employees.

And I will say that that effort was successful to maintain that service within the city Fire Department. Even now, as several catastrophic wildfires have destroyed communities throughout our state, we must continuously fight for things like safe staffing levels, appropriate personal protective equipment, and a workers' compensation system that provides care when firefighters have a job caused injury or illness. And I can tell you that system is very complicated for firefighters.

As public safety officers, I cannot even fathom what my brothers and sisters go through in other areas of the workforce within our state. We also continue to reinforce the importance of a secure retirement for public employees, while there are those who continue to attack those defined benefit pensions as unstable, despite extensive research to the contrary. Public employee pensions are promises made throughout the span of a career and must be kept. Again, that tool is not theoretical.

A few years ago, in a city in Southern California, Orange County, to be exact, started a fire department and had those employees on a 401k plan, even though the rest of the city workforce, the entire city workforce, including police officers, were afforded a secure retirement through CalPERS. We worked with the Legislature to ensure that same type of action won't occur in the future. But it's a reminder that we need to continue to stand up to protect a secure retirement for public employees.

And as I wrap this up, I want to touch briefly on one of the biggest successes of the fire service in California, and that's the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee, which speaks to the partnership that can exist in the public sector between an employer and their workforce. A collaboration of two strong and influential forces, the CALJAC is co-sponsored by the Office of California State Fire Marshal and the CPF.

This partnership of Management and Labor creates a balance that benefits California fire departments, firefighters, and ultimately, the communities that we serve. I look forward to working with you as we protect the honor of public employment throughout the State of California. Thank you.

Next, we'll have our second panel, Gabrielle Maldonado, Sandra Beltran, Sophie Martinez, and Lisa Palombi. I hope I didn't mess up your names too bad.

And introduce yourself as you begin. Thank you guys so much.

Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the committee. My name is Gabriel Maldonado. I'm with Local 829 AFSCME San Mateo County. Thank you so much for taking up the issue of equity, respect, and fair treatment for the public sector workers, even those of us who have been stuck in the category of temporary or extra help for years. I'm a youth counselor for the Human Service Agency of San Mateo County. I work with teenagers, foster youth, who are enrolled in the therapeutic program the last six years, excuse me, the last six months. As you can imagine, it's worked, it's badly needed in the community. And even though it's very rewarding, it's also very stressful. I've been doing this work for the county as extra help for 29 years. The need of foster youth didn't take pause during the pandemic, and neither did we. Because of our dedication to our community's youth, we showed up every day. Nearly half of my coworkers are extra help or temporary employees like me.

In San Mateo County, a lot of our extra help workers have been working 5, 10, 15 years. Nearly half of all the extra help workers are working 40 hours a week. You can't really call these positions extra help anymore. That's a deception. We are doing exactly the same work as permanent staff employees without receiving any benefits, like pension, medical time, off sick time, or retirement security. My status became truly frustrating during the pandemic.

Like all extra help, I was experiencing the same level of risk as my permanent coworkers. My family was just as much at risk as theirs. But I did not have the privilege of sick time to recover from COVID. It is not a good feeling to be treated as a second class when you show up every day putting your whole heart into your work.

It's not right to have a two-tier system where you have employees working positions that should be permanent, where counties aren't giving those workers the ability to become permanent employees. It's an equity issue as well. 70% of extra help workers in my county, San Mateo, are women. 65% of the people are people of color. 45% of the extra help workers work full-time hours. When we raise these inequities at the bargaining table, we are retaliated against one of my colleagues.

A fellow bargaining team member from SCIU was fired. We are in negotiations and close to an agreement to bring her and all her workers who were retaliated against back. That happened because we are lucky enough to be part of a union and stand together against this kind of gross unfairness and retaliation. But every public service worker deserves a voice, respect, fair wages, benefit, and fair treatment. This year, we are asking for your support of AB 1484 as a first step toward justice for temporary workers. But there is much more to be done. Thank you for your time and your consideration of these issues. Thank you so much.

Good morning, committee members. Thank you for hearing from us who are on the front line serving our communities. My name is Sandra Beltran, and I am a proud nurse in the community of Sylmar at Olive View Medical Center. I am an emergency room nurse. I work in the same community where I was born and raised. I help save the lives of hardworking people and their families, many of us proud to have parents and grandparents who immigrated to this community and this country.

Olive View is a public hospital and a safety net institution, but our safety net is itself in danger. Over the course of the pandemic, our staff has declined in the emergency department. Now, more than half of my colleagues are what we call travelers. Travel nurses or contract nurses are temporary hired nurses that travel to the communities, often for a few weeks or months at a time, to help where there's a nursing staff shortage. Travelers are dropping into our hospital to fill the huge and growing staffing gap.

They are from Mississippi, Arizona, and all over the United States. They are not rooted here, and most don't plan to stay. They are paid far more than our permanent staff, sometimes three to four times more than what we get paid. This is not a desirable or sustainable solution. We need to rebuild our own permanent staff. In the emergency department, everything is go, go, go. New staff with little training, as little as three days in our systems and protocols can easily interrupt the flow or make mistakes.

For example, I remember recently there was a patient who was in critical need of a blood transfusion. A traveler was behind and dropped the ball and either didn't or couldn't get to it. Fortunately, we were able to pull this patient back into stability, but it shouldn't have even reached to that point. This is not quality care. My community deserves better. We all deserve better. During the terrifying dark days of the pandemic, my community members came into the hospital in a state of fear and panic.

They couldn't even breathe. They came in gasping for air. Some of them were even taking their last breaths. We jumped in and gave them high flow oxygen. We gave them IVs. And at the end of long days of battling the disease, distress, and death, we would go home, take our scrubs off in our garage, and run upstairs to shower so we couldn't infect our families. The next day, we would go through the same thing.

At that time, I have to say that at the beginning of the pandemic, we had a stronger workforce, and then somewhere in between or towards the end, we had travelers grateful that someone can come fill that gap, but they're not dedicated. It's not the same that our community is getting that care that we are supposed to be promoting. We are not giving them that quality care. I had a patient three days ago. I will tell you a short story.

This gentleman, he was, like, 65 years old. Blood pressure was 230 over 120. That is sky high, and that is dangerous for him. He could be having a stroke or MI, which is a heart attack. So he looked pretty calm, but everyone was scared for him. I spoke to him, and I asked him, do you take your medications for blood pressure? He said, when I have a headache. So I explained that when you have a headache, that's bad, so you have to take it every day.

I explained to him how a car needs to get a tune up, and it's the same thing with our bodies. We have to take care of it because it will break down. But the difference with the car, you can buy a part and maybe make it last longer, but with our bodies, we cannot buy parts. So I took the time to explain this. He was very thankful. Why is it that we have to have our patients go through that?

I noticed he had recently been in the emergency department. When he was discharged, that could have been the time to teach him something so simple. Some of these travelers, again, I'm grateful for all the help, but that's not the solution. They're not even taking the time to explain what we do in the emergency department so that we can prevent them from coming in or even losing their life.

So I can't even imagine how frightening it'll be if we ever have a pandemic and we have to go through some of this. Members of this committee, I urge you to consider the decline of our public sector workforce, a true state of emergency. We need to build back our strength and our ability to protect our communities, neighbors, and families. Just one quick thought is that it's not you on that side. It's not us on this side. We're all together. So how can we work together to make California stronger? Thank you.

[foreign language]

Hi, good morning. My name is Araceli with SEIU USWW, and I will be translating on behalf of Ms. Sofia. Dear members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity. My name is Sofia Martinez. I have worked as a janitor at the San Diego County Administration building for 10 years.

[foreign language]

Today in my country we celebrate Mother's Day. I am a single mother and I am here before this committee largely for my son, to teach him that we must fight against injustice.

[foreign language]

A little over a year ago, my coworkers and I organized to ensure that the San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved a policy for responsible contractors. Before our fight, subcontracted workers in San Diego County did not have access to the possibility of paid vacation days, sick days, affordable health insurance, or the right to form a union.

[foreign language]

Because I led efforts to form a union, I became a victim of retaliation for refusing to give into the harassment and exploitation of my employer, Nova. I was forced to work on my knees for an entire shift and use strong chemicals that cause nosebleeds. I was fired when I refused to continue to be humiliated.

[foreign language]

That was not the first time a county contractor violated the law. Before Nova, the county contracted with NMS for janitorial services. The county terminated that contract after repeated wage theft violations, which I also experienced.

[foreign language]

We continue to fight because workers who clean government buildings for one of the richest governments in the world shouldn't have to live in poverty or be victimized by their contractors. Public dollars should not be used to fund poverty jobs.

[foreign language]

We hope you will join us by supporting AB 520 by Assemblymember Santiago. This bill would discourage our state and local governments from contracting with property service companies who mistreat workers, but much more needs to be done. Thank you.

Good morning, Madam Chair and Assembly members. Thank you for taking the time to have this information hearing and for listening to frontline workers. My name is Lisa Palombi, and I've been serving the City of Los Angeles as a public librarian for over 20 years. I serve my colleagues by being the president of the Librarians Guild, which is Local 2626 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, otherwise known as AFSCME.

Even before the pandemic began, our libraries were understaffed due to a very slow recovery from the recession of 2009. We had not yet restored nor filled all of the positions lost during that economic downturn when the pandemic hit. Now, thankfully, the city did not lay us off, but many public librarians in our system and across the country left public service for fear of being exposed to a life-threatening virus. They retired, they found other work they could do remotely, or they moved home to care for family members. But really, the virus was just one more thing to be afraid of. Before the pandemic, we were receiving active shooter training, Narcan training, and de-escalation training. There was no avoiding the fact that public facilities like libraries, parks, and transit systems were turning into defacto social service agencies and shelters. By providing restrooms, water fountains, respite from the weather, and places to simply sit for our unhoused neighbors.

Public libraries and librarians, we're used to filling in the gaps. Our summer reading programs help fill the gap between academic school years. Our adult literacy centers and career online high schools fill the gap left by our public education system and California higher education systems. These skills are in our lifelong learning wheelhouse, but filling the gap in the social service safety net for people who have no permanent housing and people who have had all of their identification stolen from them, people who have nowhere to wash themselves nor their clothing, and people who suffer from the psychological trauma of being unsheltered. That's not in our wheelhouse.

When public libraries are understaffed, the remaining employees have to pick up the workload of our missing coworkers just to keep the doors open, which we are required to do when we function as cooling in severe weather centers. And it's simple math. When your vacancy rate is 25% but your operations remain at 100% capacity, your employees are working more, they're working faster, and they're working harder.

And when your vacancy rate is 25% over a sustained period of time, such as years, the overall effect on the workforce is physical and mental burnout and even worse, compassion fatigue. Public librarianship is a mission-driven field, and traditionally, librarians who choose to enter the public sector do so with the understanding that the rewards of a long career of service are to retire with dignity by way of a livable pension and affordable health care.

But every year, our unions have to fend off attacks on those public service pensions and benefits. And it's not lost on the newest generation of public librarians that our profession is under attack. They see the book banning attempts, the punitive budget restrictions, the drag queen protests, the political firings, and the assaults and even murders of library staff.

Now, lately, the Los Angeles Public Library has not been able to fill the positions that used to be so dearly sought after offers made are turned down at an alarming rate, and the candidates tell us the processing time to get through civil service hiring is too long, the starting salaries are too low, the early career compensated time off, such as sick time and vacation time, falls too short for a healthy work-life balance. And the allure of a good pension and ongoing health care in the future is not enough to attract employees who have learned to live bountifully in the present. Thank you so much for your time this morning, and thank you for your work on these issues.

Thank you guys so much. Our next panel will be Jeff Freitas, David Schapira, and Matt Mason. I probably butchered your guys' name, but I'm sorry for that. Introduce yourself as you begin.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Jeff Freitas. I'm the president of CFT, a union of educators and classified professionals. I'm a high school math teacher by trade and a basketball coach. And I'll leave it there by joy. This is Teacher Appreciation Week, and in a couple of weeks is classified Appreciation Week. And we appreciate that you're having this hearing. And thank you for having this hearing to talk about our public education system and the workers who work in those systems.

Just as a reminder, the purpose of our public schools and colleges is to help improve our society and our community. We are focused on making sure that we have critical thinkers who are part of our democratic process and are contributing to our society. Some of that contribution is sometimes by workers, sometimes by inventors, and sometimes by people who enrich our lives, like the Lakers and the Warriors. But that is what public education does, and that's the purpose of public education. Economically, in many small towns, public schools and colleges are our number one employers, our biggest employers. In fact, the University of California is either second or third. I think it fluctuates there every once in a while. But University of California itself is one of the largest employers in the State of California. So it is very integral economically to our community. And that is a reinvestment back into the communities, in the society, and the state. And that is important as well.

But we have many challenges, and we've had many challenges to our public schools and colleges that face the workers' perspective, that face the students' perspective, and that face our public education system itself. We have an education staffing crisis here in California. In fact, we have an education staffing crisis throughout the entire country. And I use the term broadly, education workers, and reference everybody. That causes unsafe, unclean, or overcrowded environments for our students. So this is a direct effect on what our students are experiencing.

And in higher education, we are also over-reliant, error on the side of over-reliant on contingent faculty that are disinvested at that point because they have to travel so many times to do so many different jobs. So let me get into a few of these issues. Education staffing crisis the effects of the education staffing crisis we can see in our system.

We can see that it is starting to break down our public education, that we are not getting the qualified or even the numbers of vacancies in our education system. Recent polling and research from the national level, we have about 45% of the schools in our public schools report vacancies throughout our country. In the western states alone, it's 59%. When we are looking at our personal situation, we are seeing many people doing multiple jobs and not just focused on the school.

They have to leave often right after and go do either Uber or Lyft. Hopefully, they're employees of those corporations as AB 5 we fought for. But what is the cause? We are under attack day in and day out about the work that we do. Our academic freedom is under attack. The teaching of true history is under attack. Protecting the students' rights to be who they are is under attack.

We are seeing the division of our public schools either through, in other states, vouchers or charter schools or homeschooling options. Look at what happened in Ohio and how the homeschooling is affecting those students and I can go more into that if you want more. The lack of funding Prop 13 cut education funding in our state. We have tried to secure that with Prop 98, and that is a floor.

Although often voted on as a ceiling in the State of California. We are the fourth largest economy in the world. When I say we, California is the fourth largest economy in the world, but we are middling when we are talking about per pupil funding, and that is a cause of what's happening as well as the affordability. While if I talk about teachers, our average pay is pretty high compared to the rest of the country, but we are the most expensive place to live compared to the rest of the country.

So those are some of the causes about our education staff in crisis, some of the solutions funding is a major issue, again quoting fourth largest economy in the world, but meddling and funding working conditions. Many employees talking about all education employees and not to get too far, are part-time or the pay is too low, or the time to prepare is not offered, or collaborate with other educators, or the workload, or the class sizes are too large, and we are hoping to address that. In higher education in terms of the, keep this short the contingent faculty issue. We recently got health care for part-time faculty and community colleges, but that's only in our community colleges. We need to also address that in our other four-year institutions.

We need to address their rights to due process, their academic freedom, and the respect that when somebody is teaching down the hall, when a part-timer, a contingent faculty is teaching down the hall from a full-timer, that they are teaching the same thing, they are providing the same education to the same students, and they shouldn't be treated as second class citizens, as was referred earlier. And those are some of the things we need to address in our public education system.

And the last thing I want to talk about is that our working conditions are the learning conditions of the students. If we don't have small class sizes, if we don't have clean classrooms, those are our working conditions. But those are the same as our learning conditions of the students. And it's really I went into teaching because I wanted and I cared about, I wasn't going to become a millionaire.

I knew I wasn't going to become Elon Musk and fly into space, but I knew I wanted to provide for those students and teach every student that came into my classroom to make sure that they could achieve what they wanted to achieve, whether that was an artist, a basketball player, a worker, a pipe fitter, a public employee, or whatever they wanted to achieve, that was my goal as a teacher, and that's what we do. So thank you for doing this.

Good morning, Madam Chair. My name is David Schapira. I am the director of governmental relations at the California School Employees Association. CSEA represents about a quarter million classified employees across the State of California. Our members get children to school, they ensure that they have a meal to eat when they get there, we support students in classrooms, and we ensure that safe and healthy learning environment for the staff and, of course, the students. Our members are essential.

They get the buildings opened in the morning, they close them down at night, and they were never more essential than during the pandemic. The majority of our members worked in person on school campuses during the pandemic. Our members ensured that kids had meals when students, many students, rely on school meals as their only nutritious meals of the day. Many of our bus drivers delivered meals to children in their neighborhoods. We had IT professionals who ensured that they had access to distance learning.

We had paraeducators who were in classrooms, oftentimes on Zoom, supporting students even when there was no one else in the room. They would support them over Zoom. And so our members have been essential throughout this process, and they are even more essential now as we try to recover from the lost opportunities during the pandemic to ensure that our students had access to the best education possible.

As Mr. Freitas mentioned, our working environment is our students' learning environment, and that environment is not filling the needs of our students or our staff as of today. We recently surveyed our members in California who are majority part-time, majority women, majority people of color, and what we learned in this survey, and I'm going to summarize some of the data that we collected, but what we learned in this survey is that this crisis that Mr. Freitas referred to, this workforce crisis, is not a shortage.

There are plenty of people that are ready and willing and capable of serving in our education system in this state. The question is whether we have enough people who are willing to take a vow of poverty, because the majority of our members, the majority of classified employees in California make less than $30,000 a year. Process that for a second. If that was full-time, over the course of a year, that would be less than minimum wage.

More than half of CSEA members make less than $30,000 a year. So you have to find people who are willing to take a vow of poverty to serve our students. The majority of our members are in very difficult conditions across the state. And one of the questions that we hear a lot. One of the statements that we hear made a lot by management groups in this state is that they can't find people, that they can't fill jobs, and that's why we have vacancies across the state.

And the reality is that we learned in this survey is that 74% of classified employees in California, if offered additional hours, would take them. So you think about all these vacant positions, all of this work that's going undone, all of this service to our students that is lacking in our education system. 74% of classified employees would take more hours if offered.

So we have some legislation that I'm going to talk about in just a few minutes, but I want to talk a little bit more about the conditions that our members are facing in this state. 40% of classified employees in California do not get health care from their employer. So we all know that in this country, we have an employment-based health care system. 40% of classified employees in California do not get health care from their employer.

44% of California classified employees are worried that they could lose their home in the next year because of inability to pay their rent or their mortgage. 44%, almost half of classified employees in California. So you just have to remember, when you drop your kid off at the bus stop and that bus driver picks them up, that driver who's picking them up. 44% of those folks are concerned they might lose their home. The person serving your kids meals.

44% of those people are concerned they might not have a place to live. 52% of classified employees are concerned that in the next year, this is a majority, 52% of classified employees are concerned that in the next year, they will not be able to afford food for their family to put a meal on their table. We have to remember that that custodian who's cleaning the school campus is concerned that in the next year they may not be able to feed their family. That teacher's aide who's in the classroom supporting your child to ensure that they're caught up is concerned. 52% of them are concerned that they won't be able to feed their family in the next year. These statistics are staggering. And there is a solution.

There's a piece of legislation sponsored by Assemblymember McCarty, AB 1699, that we are proud to co-sponsor with CFT and some of our sister unions. To ensure that when a vacancy exists and a school district is posting a part or a full time job, that that job first be offered to people who are already working in that school district, in that classification.

And that if none of those folks want to take that job, that they offer it to people who can fit it into their schedules in other classifications. So let me explain some of the things that are happening in the state on this front. We have school districts that have essentially a full-time paraeducator job, a job that is a person whose job is to support students in the classroom, and they will split that position in two.

We have a member who works in one district in the morning and drives to another school district in the afternoon to do the same job. While that member is driving on the highway to the other district, they are passing a car of someone who worked in the other district in the morning and is coming to work in the first district in the afternoon. Why do you think that is? Well, it saves the school district benefits. Those employees are not pension-eligible.

It saves a tiny amount of money in comparison to the cost of those employee salaries and in comparison to the cost to the learning of students. The continuity of learning. When a student has a one-to-one paraeducator, a student with a severe developmental disability, they've got a different person in the morning than in the afternoon. That person comes in the afternoon, has no idea what kind of morning that student had, what things that student was struggling with, what they were dealing with at home.

And so we need that continuity of service, and we need to fill vacancies. And this bill, AB 1699, will help us do that. The other situation that we have is we have a bus driver who maybe drives a kid to school in the morning, drives kids to school, many kids to school in the morning, returns them to home in the afternoon, doesn't have hours in the middle of the day, and is working maybe 22-23 hours a week.

And then at that same campus, we might have a food service position that's open. And we have school districts that will actually tell that employee they cannot apply for that job, for what reason? That person can fully do that job in the middle of the day. They could absolutely do that job in the middle of day. But what will happen is they'll probably get over 30 hours, and they'll be qualified for benefits, and they'll be pension eligible.

And so districts will actually tell that employee that they cannot apply for that job in the middle of the day. So we have a problem in this state, and I think that AB 1699 is, in fact, the least expensive solution. We come here asking every year for additional resources to hire employees. But AB 1699 would cost the state very little, would cost school districts very little, and could do a lot to address the workforce crisis and the classified ranks in our school system in California.

As I mentioned, these folks are essential to our students' education and it is critically important that we treat them with respect and because if we do, we can ensure that our students have people who are working to serve them who are in a situation where they're not having to worry about whether or not they can put food on their table and they can focus on ensuring that our students are as successful as they can be. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Hello, Madam Chair and members, and thank you for allowing me to speak to you today on behalf of thousands of represented workers at our state's higher education institutions. My name is Matt Mason. I'm a 20 year State Sacramento State auto mechanic and member of the Teamsters 2010 bargaining team.

Our union represents over 14,000 workers at the UC and CSU, and this includes 12,000 administrative support staff system powering the UC system-wide and over 2400 skilled trades workers at every CSU campus and several of the UC campuses. As you're probably aware, the CSU is a long-standing and worsening structural crisis in its pay practices, which harms the university, its workers, and the state.

A recently completed independent salary study commissioned by the Legislature found that the CSU average pay is 12% below market median, with some jobs classifications at more than 20% below market due to the lack of a step system and salary inversion. Despite our sacrifice and contributions to the CSU, including working through the pandemic, we've received no structural salary steps for nearly 30 years. In negotiations, the CSU has only offered us a lowball 1% average proposal even as the cost of living has skyrocketed.

I've seen firsthand how this undermines the system. This pay is critical to the CSU's ability to recruit and retain talented staff who help students obtain their goals, keep the lights on the water flowing, and keep labs and instructional equipment functioning and maintained, and keep student dormitories safe and secure so that students and staff can focus on their education. All the while, we've seen both systems double down on contracting out of our members' work at a much higher cost.

Instead of filling vacancies or growing opportunities for the good middle-class union jobs. Just a few months ago, the CSU proposed expanding their ability to contract out skilled trades work. When we pushed them on the need for more outsourcing, they admitted it was used to backfill vacant positions and contractors instead of actually addressing the critical hiring and retention problems that were created by CSU's low pay and lack of annual salary steps. In other words, these problems are two-sided with the same coin. I appreciate the time to be able to come out here and highlight some of the challenges facing our membership. And despite the budget deficit in California faces, our union will continue pushing to alleviate structural pay inequities that hurt our members and the higher education system as a whole. Thank you.

Thank you, guys, but we'll take a brief recess. Thank you.

Coffee is awful, by the way.

We gavel in. We're back, guys. We'll go to our last panel. And that is Dr. Savannah Hunter, Irene Green and Kathleen Bowsher. Please introduce yourself as you begin. Thank you.

All right. Good morning, Madam Chair and Members of the Committee. Thank you so much for having us here today. It's a pleasure to be able to talk with you. My name is Kathleen Bowsher and I'm with the Department of State Hospitals. I work at Atascadero state hospital. I'm a music therapist.

I've worked for the state since 2010. I'm here representing the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 2620, which represents nearly 5500 full time health and social services professionals in over 135 job classifications in the state. Our local represents adoption specialists, licensing program analysts, psychologists, pharmacists, social workers, chaplains and Native American spiritual leaders and rehabilitation therapists, to name just a few.

We provide direct service to clients in over a dozen state departments in almost every county, in prisons, state hospitals, developmental centers and those with disabilities in their communities. Our clients are among California's most vulnerable citizens, the people who often get lost in the cracks. So understaffing is a critical issue. Recruitment and retention are an issue throughout the state for AFSCME represented job classifications. Recruitment efforts are difficult as pay has not been commensurate with the cost of living or education required to qualify for these positions.

This is of particular concern in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, CDCR, and Department of State Hospitals, DSH, where employees are working with populations that are often violent and/or psychiatrically unstable. These departments often rely on expensive contractors who have no long term stake in the mission statements of the department. Employees are often out, sometimes for months or years, due to physical injuries or trauma sustained in a workplace assault. Some never return due to either physical injury or sustained emotional trauma.

Low staffing, high caseloads, a demanding work environment, and a challenging population also lead to high levels of stress and burnout, even when the employee has not been assaulted. I personally know of several people within our bargaining unit who have committed suicide. While their deaths may not have been directly attributable to the work environment, I don't think it is a stretch to say that it added to whatever burdens they were carrying.

Understaffing adds another layer of stress in an environment that is challenging and draining on the best of days. CDCR and DSH have done little to meaningfully address recruitment and retention. In March 2023, the Department of State Hospitals had an average vacancy rate of 23% within the bargaining unit, ranging from 17% at Patton State Hospital up to 28% at Metropolitan State Hospital. Within CDCR, mental health care staffing vacancies are as high as 60% in some locations.

In CDCR, the critical staff shortages amongst mental health clinicians have led to the Coleman v. Newsom ruling that monthly fines will now be levied against CDCR for vacancies above 10%. In the first two months of implementation, CDCR was fined $13.6 million, money that could have been better spent on recruitment and retention.

Having a competitive salary with a streamlined processing and timeline and options to telework, as well as a robust health care system with good mental health coverage would help the state with adequate staffing so that we can provide social and rehabilitative services to the state's most vulnerable populations. Thank you for listening.

Good morning. My name is Dr. Savannah Hunter and I'm an associate research and policy specialist at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. I'd like to thank the Chair and the Committee Members for inviting me here today.

I'm here on behalf of myself and my colleagues at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, Dr. Aida Farmand, Tynan Challenor, Dr. Enrique Lopezlira, and Ken Jacobs to present our research on the adequacy of state employee wages, a report we published this past March. The State of California is one of the largest employers in California, with close to a quarter of a million employees, almost half of whom are women and almost two thirds of whom are workers of color.

State workers perform essential jobs that serve their communities and generate economic activity that contributes to the growth of the state economy. But across occupations and throughout the state, many state workers do not earn a living wage. A living wage is different from the minimum wage. The minimum wage is a legal floor. However, a living wage represents the hourly wage that a worker employed full time and all year would need to make in order to be self sufficient, considering the cost of living for their region.

The widely used living wage calculator from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology provides estimates for the hourly wage workers in a state, a county or metropolitan area would need to earn for minimum level of subsistence, considering their family size and by taking into account the cost of food, childcare, medical expenses, housing, transportation, other basic needs.

For some context, MIT's living wage calculator estimates that a single adult in California with no children would need to make a minimum of $21.24 to make ends meet, and a family of two full time working adults with two children would need to make a minimum of $30.06 each for a basic family budget. These wage estimates are just for a basic level of subsistence and do not include saving for an emergency or retirement or taking part in any leisure activities, including even going out to eat.

In our research, we use payroll data from the State Controller's office to examine the adequacy of state employee wages by comparing the earnings of full time employed state workers represented by SEIU Local 1000 to the MIT's living wage calculator. SEIU 1000 is the largest public sector union in the state, representing almost half of all state government workers. We find that a sizable share of state workers represented by SEIU 1000 do not earn a living wage.

We find that 5% of state workers represented by SEIU 1000 earned a wage too low to support just their own basic needs. Over a third, 35%, earn a wage too low to support a family of four, even assuming that that worker had a partner who also worked full time for the same wage, and over two thirds, 69% earned a wage too low to support just themselves and one child on their own.

We found that wages for state employees in certain occupations are so low that a majority of full time state workers represented by SEIU 1000 do not earn enough to support a family of four. These occupations included building and maintenance workers, particularly custodians, healthcare support workers, including certified nursing assistants and medical assistants, office and administrative workers, production workers in laundry and the printing trades, and workers in food preparation, including cooks and food service technicians.

Our colleague Jazmin Rivera at the UCLA Labor Center conducted interviews with 12 state workers represented by SEIU 1000 in many of these same occupations, and documented that without living wages, workers struggled with rent burden, food insecurity, and relied on overtime, side gigs or moving in with family to try to make ends meet. Our research shows that low wages among state workers is a statewide problem. Difficulty obtaining livable wages was especially acute in coastal regions, but workers in all parts of the state faced self-sufficiency challenges.

In the Bay Area, around 50% or more of workers represented by SEIU 1000 did not earn enough to support a family of four. In LA and Monterey counties, around 46%, and here in Sacramento and in Kern counties, around 30% of state workers represented by SEIU 1000 earned a wage too low to support a family of four. Earning below living wage for state employees is an issue of racial, ethnic, and gender equity.

In our report, we use nationally representative data from the census, and we find that women, black, and Hispanic workers are overrepresented in state government jobs that do not pay a living wage. Additionally, a 2020 report from the California Department of Human Resources found that women and women of color face significant gender pay gaps relative to men in the state service.

The state's provision of wages that are insufficient to support a decent standard of living has severe negative effects on the economic security of state workers and their families and exacerbates the persistent gender and racial wage and wealth gaps. As we build a post pandemic future in the state, there's an urgent need for higher wages and pay parity to ensure adequate living standards as well as to attract and retain a strong public sector workforce. Thank you for your time.

Good morning, Madam Chair. How are you this morning? My name is Irene Green and I am the Vice President for Bargaining, representing over 96,000 state workers for SEIU Local 1000. I'm also a proud state employee. I work for the Employment Development Department as an employment program representative, and for over 14 years in this position, I've served in service of all Californians. I provide support to California residents who by no fault of their own, find themselves unemployed.

The work that I do, along with thousands of other siblings in unemployment program representative positions, allows unemployed Californians to keep food on their table, to keep a roof over their head, and provides a means to find reemployment. So in recent years, thousands of state workers have shared with me their frustration with their low pay and fatigue driven by the COVID-19 pandemic work rules, the increased workload and mandatory overtime in the state's 24 hours facilities.

Local 1000 represents hundreds of classifications, including nurses, custodians, analysts, office technicians, dental assistants, licensed vocational instructors, health field evaluation nurses, and so many others. We are part of the public sector in California. We are the long term responders. We are the ones who clean up the mess that the gun manufacturers, that synthetic opioid producers and the oil companies leave behind in our communities after the first responders have left. And as you've heard earlier, we are disproportionately women and workers of color.

And we've been stretched to the breaking point at a time when job vacancies in California state civil service are at a near all time high. Our state hospitals, prisons and veterans homes are in dire need of nurses and medical support staff. We have 25% vacancy rate for RNs in our prisons alone. That's over 700 open RN positions. They are unfilled as nurses continue to work mandatory overtime shifts to fill in that staffing gap.

The largest classification that Local 1000 represents, our associate government program analysts, has a 24% vacancy rate. That's almost 3600 open positions. AGPAs perform program evaluation and planning, budgeting, policy analysis and formulation for anti-poverty programs, housing and public health projects. The effectiveness of these programs and projects are critical to the health and financial stability of California residents. In all, the State of California has about a 25% vacancy rate across Local 1000 bargaining units. That's well over 24,000 jobs that are waiting to be filled.

California Silver Service relies on the Legislator to make the kind of public investments in people and communities that private corporations won't make because they invest for the next quarter, not the next generation. Making those public investments start with providing adequate staffing, with living wages for the essential services that are critical to the sustainability and progress of communities in California. Now, we have four recruitment and retention related recommendations for the Legislature to consider.

First, support Local 1000's efforts to increase the state civil service recruitment efforts by helping to raise public awareness of the value of a career in civil service. I am a proud state worker and many of my siblings are proud state workers, and we need to make sure that we make the public aware of that. Second, raise civil service wages so that early career professionals identify the state of California as their employer of choice.

Third, in terms of retention, we urge that the Legislator to work with Local 1000 to support our efforts to keep retirement and health care affordable for state employees. Together, we can halt the cost shifting of these benefits that has happened over the last 25 years. Fourth, over 5000 state workers with 10 plus years of service separated from Local 1000 represented bargaining units over the last year alone. This is double the number it was before COVID-19 pandemic actually began.

We would like to see a substantial essential worker pay bonus that acknowledges and rewards the heroic sacrifice that all of the 96,000 Local 1000 represented workers made during this COVID pandemic. Now, these recommendations would go a long way to stabilize employee recruitment and retention in our bargaining units. And I want to thank you again for the opportunity to speak in front of you and the Committee today. Thank you so much.

Thank you guys. We have time for public comment. We have about 30 minutes for public comment that gives about 30 people, because each person will have one minute to speak. So please state your name and you have one minute.

Can you hear me? Thank you very much. Good morning, Madam Chair. George Osborne for the Union of American Physicians and Dentists. UAPD members are physicians, dentists and psychiatrists who provide health care to incarcerated persons in CDCR and patients at DSH.

Our patients, especially mental patients, are the most severely mentally ill patients in the state. Recruitment and retention have been an issue for many years. Wages and benefits for our members are way behind a private sector, and some facilities have vacancy rates hovering around 50%. Rather than focus on recruitment and retention, the state relies upon contract temporary workers, which are two to three times more expensive than civil service physicians and reduces the quality of care for the most vulnerable patients in the state.

In effect, the state is privatizing health care in California.

Thank you, sir.

Good Morning. Janice O'Malley with the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees. Just really appreciate your taking the time to listen to some of our members speak today about what they are facing in the public sector. Nationally, we found that there are 500,000 public sector jobs that are open, and AFSCME International is thinking creatively outside of the box with their staff, the Front Lines initiative to really take a look at all of the concerns that we are facing in the public sector.

Just wanted to highlight that some of our members are talking about forced overtime, working 80 hours a week, accompanied by stress-induced depression, health problems, family and marital difficulties. And we need to solve for this. So again, appreciate your time and hoping that we can work together to solve for this problem. Thank you.

Good morning, Madam Chair and Committee. My name is Vincent Green and I am an information technology specialist working for the Department of Veterans Affairs. I am also a union steward for Local 1000. I stand before you to answer the very simple question of why we want to deserve a raise. The simplest answer is because we are just like you. We are the same people that you invite to your barbecues at your home. We honor and celebrate your accomplishments and cry with you when your personal devastation comes to you and your family.

But more importantly, it's because we have been there. We as state workers, continue to be here, even with COVID, vital services continued because we were here. The Legislature staff has received a 7.5% cost of living increase for the past two years. The only difference is that we received 2.5% raise in the last year. Now the price of gas, groceries, medication, clothing, housing has increased for everyone in this room. We are the same. So again, do we need a raise? Deserve a raise? Yes, by all means. Thank you very much.

Buenos días. My name is Ruthie Barran, associate governmental program analyst with the Department of Housing and Community Development. I'm also a proud member of SEIU Local 1000. Like the farm workers, nurses and other essential workers, state workers kept California running during the pandemic. Although many of our state workers were made to go to work in COVID-infested buildings, worked mandatory overtime, and were treated with hostility by many.

We managed to ensure that services from safety net programs like unemployment, state disability, workers' compensation were delivered as timely as possible. We wrote and enforced COVID laws and regulations to keep Californians healthy, safe, and alive. Ensured folks had roofs over their heads by implementing programs for emergency rental assistance, such as Housing is Key and Homekey. And during this time, we helped California establish itself as the fourth largest economy in the world with a budget that had billions in surplus.

However, many of our coworkers were also suffering and barely making ends meet, if at all. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Stephanie Swales. I am a dental assistant. I work for the CDCR and CSP, California State Prison Solano. I'm here today to tell you that as state employees, we have earned our raise.

And those of us that work, all of us state employees, but especially those of us in medical, pharmacy, dental, and mental health, who I work with very closely. We serve Californians by helping our most underserved population, which is our inmates, with rehabilitation. We teach them how to take care of themselves. We teach them how to take care of their families. They take those skills with them when they leave, and that helps them stay from coming back into our prisons. And with that work.

We've done that before COVID. We did it during COVID and after COVID. And I take great pride in my work and in helping our Californians, but that pride doesn't pay my bills. And we really deserve our 30% raise over the next three years. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Sam Lew. I'm a Rep 2 at the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Previous people have talked about the vacancy problems, and I can testify that that is a problem.

Even management is saying that we can't hire and retain skilled staff, and that just causes more workloads for everyone else. And a simple solution to that would be the 30% raise and the 100% health care. Thanks.

Hi, my name is May Fopiano. I work for the Department of Motor Vehicles for the last 15 years. I'm a proud SEIU 1000 member and a shop steward.

I want to let you know that I found out the other day that two of my coworkers who've worked there longer than I have are homeless, and it was very humbling to hear their stories. My daughter, who works for Freeport Bakery, makes as much as I do. We deserve this 30%. We were there. We never stopped working. Thank you.

My name is Ricky Bradley. I'm a Housing and Community Development representative too, at the Department of Housing and Community Development.

You've heard a lot of numbers. I don't have any figures for you, but I do have many stories that we heard at the town hall of people who had to sell blood in order to survive. We have, many of us have to work two and three jobs. I personally have about four, just to be able to survive.

And I think that it's a shame that in this economy, those of us who keep this state running also have to partake of the services that the unhoused and other people have to use. Because even though we work for this government, we can't afford to buy houses here, we can't afford to buy food here. It's really a shame.

And so I'm just imploring you, along with 96,000 of my brothers and sisters, that we need to be respected, we need to be paid, and we need to be protected because we deserve it.

Hi, my name is Jonah Paul and I'm a digital marketing analyst for the EDD and a proud SEIU Local 1000 Member. During the COVID unemployment crisis, my team and I led efforts to help your constituents through a beleaguered system. We endured serious personal risks, receiving threats and being targeted by hackers.

We served while sacrificing 9.24% of our salaries to help the state pay for our essential programs, even as our personal budget soared. We didn't let that stop us from our mission. But now we stand at a crossroad between being fairly paid or left behind. I chose public service as a career because I believe in the mission, and someday I want to have a home and a family of my own, but I can't with the salary that we were paid today.

We deserve essential pay, a 30% raise and full health coverage. We run the state today, and all we ask is that you help us keep our California dream alive. Thank you.

Good morning. Thank you for being here. My name is Bill Hall. I have both the privilege and responsibility to both serve the public as an employee at the Department of Transportation in Oakland, California, and as board Chair to SEIU Local 1000.

In Oakland, in Alameda County, I earned $3,000 more than what's considered low income on an annual basis. The people that I represent, I hear from on a regular basis. We have people in San Diego who live in their cars, no fault of their own. We have people in Fremont who are living in homeless encampments, no fault of their own.

This is the result of being left behind for more than 20 years. How did this happen? 11 out of the last 20 years, we've gotten nothing. When we did get a pay raise, it was simply enough to keep us up with the cost of living for that particular year or period of time. The result of that was that we were then asked also to contribute more to our benefits. In our last contract, we got a total of 7% and we gave back four.

We gave it back in OPAB, we gave it back in increased retirement benefits. That does not leave us with enough money to simply put a roof over our head and support a family. And I just cannot drive that point home for the people that you see in this room who are standing behind me, who are here today and everybody who has come and presented to you this morning, it is all across the system is broken.

Thank you.

Hello Madam Chairman and Committee Members. My name is Juanita Daniels. I'm a job steward with SEIU Local 1000. I've been a steward I think for almost 25 years now. I started as a seasonal worker and worked to permanent position. We are the infrastructure of California, including yourselves in the Assembly and the Legislature. We are crumbling. We're beginning to crumble and we will crumble unless we are supported as the infrastructure for California. I want to be proud again that I am a state worker.

I'm a steward. My mother was a steward. My daughter's a steward. Because we have to fight the battle over and over and over again. California cannot build on our backs any longer. We have to be supported, we have to be uplifted or California will crumble. We have worked through all of this, COVID. I have coworkers that have passed away because of this. The 20 and 30 year olds won't come to work for California because there is no incentive, there is no support.

I want to be proud again. I know you guys are proud of being a representative of California. We ask for the support and all that we deserve. Thank you.

Thank you. I want to thank each and every one of you guys for lifting your voices and using your voices today to educate us and to educate Californians that are listening and watching today. I would like to let you guys know that I am also a proud person that comes from the public sector.

I am a proud SEIU member myself and past member. And I understand. I started my career at the Department of Social Services. We've heard a lot regarding employment in California's public sector, including information about concerning trends. I think what many people tend to forget or not know is that every single Californian is served by a public employee in some way. Police, fire, and teachers are generally the most visible.

But there are public employees at all levels of government working on things from the air we breathe to the zoos we visit, really, from A to Z. Public employees serve to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the Californians. And the work that they do touch every aspect of our lives for these purposes. Most times, the public never really sees them or doesn't really know you understand the work. They never understand the work that you guys do.

They get on an elevator and see a safety certificate, but they don't realize that a public employee was responsible for certifying that it was operated safely. That's just one example. Many public employees could take their talents to the private sector, but instead, what they have chosen is a career dedicated to public service. And that should speak volumes. We're all familiar with the saying, where California goes, so goes the rest of the nation.

I look forward to working together with you guys to meet the challenges that we've heard of today. Let's do this together so that this statement remains true for our public sector employees. Thank you. This hearing is adjourned.